Prime / Water Change query

[Cynic]

Hi all,

Just a quick query in regards to how people do water changes.

My current process is...

1. Drain old water
2. Switch off filter
3. Add Prime
4. Add new water
5. Wait 30 minutes
6. Switch on filter

My question is whether or not it's necessary to wait the 30 minutes before turning the filter back on? Or whether or not the filter should be turned off at all?

Cheers in advance

 

[aquabeast]

my canister is the only one that gets turned off. the tubes from my HOB are so long that they pick up water half empty.lol i usually just empty about 50%, put new water in of same temp, add dechlorinator, and add my new dose of ferts for my plants and im set. i guess it helps as a less shocking situation for the fish to wait a little. or not to have water sloshing everywhere while the tanks being emptied.

 

[Daxhua]

Hi all,

Just a quick query in regards to how people do water changes.

My current process is...

1. Drain old water
2. Switch off filter
3. Add Prime
4. Add new water
5. Wait 30 minutes
6. Switch on filter

My question is whether or not it's necessary to wait the 30 minutes before turning the filter back on? Or whether or not the filter should be turned off at all?

Cheers in advance

I do it the same way except my filters stay on unless I'm doing maintenance on them also. Ohh don't forget to turn off your heater when draining water.
The way your doing it is fine imo if your worried about killing your bacteria then don't be Prime takes care of it. Everyone does water changes a little differently its just all about personal preferences. Your good

 

[Convict2161]

I don't think you'd wanna run your filters dry during a water change, you may burn out something and why benefit is there to running it with no water flowing?

I shut everything down. I just turn off the surge protector and drain tank to desired level. I then add Prime and my Excel. Then temp match and refill. Once tank is filled I power up everything and I'm done. The AC 110 sometimes needs a little help so I'll add some tank water to it to help prime it. My fx5 is self priming so no issues there.

I'm interested in why you would leave the filters running dry. I would that would be bad for them wouldn't it?

 

[MartyMA]

Is there a reason to add prime to the tank instead of to the water that is being added? Does it matter? I add new water to a water cooler, add in prime and then refill the tank with the already 'primed' water. It seems to work okay.

 

[Daxhua]

I don't think you'd wanna run your filters dry during a water change, you may burn out something and why benefit is there to running it with no water flowing?

I shut everything down. I just turn off the surge protector and drain tank to desired level. I then add Prime and my Excel. Then temp match and refill. Once tank is filled I power up everything and I'm done. The AC 110 sometimes needs a little help so I'll add some tank water to it to help prime it. My fx5 is self priming so no issues there.


I'm interested in why you would leave the filters running dry. I would that would be bad for them wouldn't it?

I don't run my filters dry. I drain 50% of water from my tank but the intakes on my canister filters are well below the water line so they don't run dry.
Besides who said anything about running filters dry that's silly.

 

[Convict2161]

I don't run my filters dry. I drain 50% of water from my tank but the intakes on my canister filters are well below the water line so they don't run dry.
Besides who said anything about running filters dry that's silly.

Haha I guess I just figured. If I do a water change I'm the same and ya know what? Never thought of that! My fx5 is well below that also. It's my AC 110 that needs to be shut down.

 

[Daxhua]

That's one of the reasons I don't like HOB filters, just annoying to get them going again.

 

[Cornstar]

I turn off everything similar to convict. The heater can easily burn out, I burnt my aquaclear 300 that way.

When I plug in my filter it automatically works. So I like it.

 

[OscarFan76]

I turn everything off, water/prime, and turn it back on immediately. I do not wait. I haven't had a problem.

 

[Cynic]

Good to hear people don't wait or leave their filters on. I was just worried about the prospect of some water avoiding the prime and getting to the filter.