Equipment Review and Discussion

I have about 8 or 9 in of water in a tank that is 25 in tall and this makes siphoning water into my canister filter impossible. I have been using a Penn Plax Cascade 1000 for about two months now and when it comes time to clean it out and siphoning the water back in, it is really troublesome. For now I have to put the whole intake system in the water in order for me to pump water into the filter and even then I have to turn the filter on its side in order for this to work. When I finally get the filter to run properly I am only able to keep it on one side and moving it anywhere else makes the filter stop working. I would like to keep the water level around this height and also be able to move the filter under the tank. I understand that these types of filters aren't meant to suck out water from a tank that tall unless it was completely filled up and I am worried if the lack of siphoning is damaging the filter some how.

So now I have considered getting a submersible pump to help get water into my filter and also help get rid of my intake system that is under water. My filter pumps 265 GPH and I am wondering if getting a pump with something higher than 265 could be bad for it. I've been looking at getting a EcoPlus 396(396 GPH) because of the many ways I could use it for my set up and it comes with many connections including one in 5/8. They do have other models that pump at 290 GPH and 158 GPH, these would be the closer to what my filter has. I am sorry if I rambled on or confused any one but I just wanted to paint a picture of what I am currently dealing with.

If the filter is kept on the floor and you use longer hoses, it should work. Why do you keep the water level that low relative to that tank?

If I understand you correctly, a small electrical pump will work. I use some clear 1/2" tubing connected to it and the other end clamped to the sink.

I recently put on longer hoses so that I could bring the filter down but it still doesn't work when inside the cabinet. For now it is on the floor to the right of the tank which is why I thought of using a pump to help bring the water down. Well the reason why I don't fill the water up is because I don't want to max out the cleaning capacity of my filter, which is rated for 100 gallons but for turtles its much less. Another reason is that I recently added a RES hatchling to the tank and I worry that it may be too deep for him. And finally I would have to find a different platform for them to bask on, I really like the fake root type of ornament I have for them.

The idea of the pump was to replace the whole intake system and for it to be able to suck water into the canister filter continuously. This would clear up more room for the tank and make things easier when it came time to siphon water back in the filter. I hope I didn't confuse you guys in that last post it was kind of late last night, also thanks for your help Steve.

So, the pump is to assist the canister? If so, that would likely be too much pressure and will cause leaks everywhere. I agree there are nice aspects to the current setup, but there doesn't seem to be an elegant solution to the problems that it causes. I can't see the hoses well, but is there any sagging? You'd want flow and water movement as direct as possible.

Ok thanks I'm glad you told me that. The new hoses don't sag much but I'm planning on raising the water level to see if that will help with the siphoning.

Can you post a wider pic of the tank, maybe showing the tubes?

I finally figured it out! So I filled the water about halfway up and was now able to use the intake tube normally, the only problem I ran into was air getting into the tube. I wrapped it up with some duck tape and that finally fixed the problem. I decided to see if I could now put the filter inside the cabinet and after pumping while tilting the filter it finally started working. I'll post some pictures up tomorrow, glad I had the day off today.

Equipment Review and Discussion :: Using submersible pump with canister filter.

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