who uses there return piping on there canister filter for water changes?

[navydiscus]

How many of you use your return piping for water changes. That being said can you use the same piping for adding and removing water for water changes. I dont believe a normal 3 way valve can do that. Do they make a 4 way valve that will vent/direct flow upstream to the aquarium or downtream so the canister filter can pump water from the aquarium, or do i have to use 3 seperate gate valves configured to accomplish this? By doing something like this it should make water changes as simple as connecting the end of my hose to my pump inside my water tote, or just throw the hose in my garden. This way you would only need one hose that you wouldnt have to lug back and forward. Doesnt seem too complicated and would make life so much easier.

[doivuthe]

I use 3 seperate vales on my piping in canister
http://nt5.upanh.com/b6.s35.d3/deb251d36eb8121d0c9f40353df91e36_52491105.a2.png

[nc0gnet0]

Huh? Trying to imagine a world in which configuring 3 and 4 way valves somehow makes things easier? To me its just seems like adding somethng else that can go wrong or be forgotten.

[discussmith]

A 3 way valve on the return line will give you the choice of either sending return water to the tank or out for draining. Isolating the canister for using the same return line to refill the tank so you don't backwash the junk in the canister up through the intake is another matter. Additional problems will be that the deepest you can remove tank water will be the bottom of the canister intake strainer which normally aren't that deep and most of us clean the bottom when removing water for a water change so this would also present a problem. If you use the intake to clean the bottom you will send all the crud into your filter which you wouldn't have to do with a separate water change system.

All thought of but not done for these reasons.

[navydiscus]

discussmith thanks for the reply, and hopefully i can explain my setup a little bit better after some thought. I agree with you that the strainer is too high on canister filters for this to work, and it should also not be on the bottom of the tank. Mind you this is solely for a bare bottom tank. I intend to fabricate the intake of the canister so the strainer is approximately 3 inches from the bottom of the tank therefore it is deep enough to do approx 85% of the water without getting all the poop into the bottom of the canister. I still plan on siphoning the tank, but with a power siphon i believe made by ehiem with a 100 micron filter therefore i don't have to deal with carrying buckets of water anymore. Now if the power siphon doesn't work and i'm unable to maintain chemistry and a clean tank of coarse i will switch back over, but i think this should work. Now for the return piping from the canister. One 3 way valve will not be able to do what i would like to accomplish. 3 gate valves should work fine though. 2 on the main return line with the hose going to the water tote/garden in between with a single gate valve on that. This will allow me to isolate the main tank and use the canister to pump out water for water changes, then isolate the canister filter and attach the same hose to the pump inside the water tote to refill the tank. Sounds complicated initially, but in the long run it should save a lot of time. I will be able to siphon up the poop at the same time the canister is pumping out the water. I believe the fluval FX5 has enough power to accomplish this.

[navydiscus]

Anymore suggestions?