Canister filter questions

Okay, so 6 years into this hobby I finally decide to try a canister filter.
Thing works great, no issue. I decide to disconnect so I can take it to my kitchen to check out how dirty it is. It's been running about 3 months now without any maintenance. So, I unplug it- pull off the top & water spurts everywhere, thumbs down! I pop the top back on quickly & decide to disconnect the tubing from the intake & spray bar at the tank. Again, water everywhere...

So, there must be a way I can shut this thing down, disconnect, and take it to my sink without making a mess.

Frustrated,
Chad

u should be able to turn off the out take and in take hoses and slowly lift the lid letting the water drain down the side.. thats what i do lol

What type of canister is it?

fishyladdy wrote:u should be able to turn off the out take and in take hoses and slowly lift the lid letting the water drain down the side.. thats what i do lol

That's what it did! Drained down the side, right onto the floor. I hope there is a better way to disconnect this thing!

Madness wrote:What type of canister is it?

It's a ZooMed TCN-30? It's for a 10 gallon tank. A little thing it is...

Before transitioning to wet dry filtration, I used Fluval FX-5 with good success. Powerful, quiet and easy to maintain..

fishNAbowl wrote:

fishyladdy wrote:u should be able to turn off the out take and in take hoses and slowly lift the lid letting the water drain down the side.. thats what i do lol

That's what it did! Drained down the side, right onto the floor. I hope there is a better way to disconnect this thing!

Madness wrote:What type of canister is it?

It's a ZooMed TCN-30? It's for a 10 gallon tank. A little thing it is...

Sorry I have no experience with that filter.

No experience with that filter either  

Typically canister filters have a ball valve on the intake and output lines that you turn so that when you unhook the canister it doesn't siphon water. The little zoomed one might not have those since it is so small? They might just assume you can take the intake/outtake out of the tank for maintenance?

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:Typically canister filters have a ball valve on the intake and output lines that you turn so that when you unhook the canister it doesn't siphon water. The little zoomed one might not have those since it is so small? They might just assume you can take the intake/outtake out of the tank for maintenance?

Hmmm, why didn't I ink of that?
Thought maybe there was a trick or something I was missing...

I notice some canisters also have quick connects. I could hit the hardware store and find small valves to install or maybe small quick connects with one way valves.

Thank you everyone for the input. And thanks Cory, very helpful!

It sounds like you did this and still had leakage? ... The instructions say to unlock the screw nuts and detach the hoses from the intake and outlet to avoid siphoning. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Betty wrote:It sounds like you did this and still had leakage? ... The instructions say to unlock the screw nuts and detach the hoses from the intake and outlet to avoid siphoning. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Well, 1st I cracked open the canister itself. That didn't work. Then when I detached the hoses from the intake and outlet I didn't have control on the hoses so they flopped around and drained whatever water they had left in them. Was very frustrating! I need a 0 leakage way to maintain this unit.

I have this filter too and it's a bit of a pain.  I just pull the whole contraption and take it to the sink to clean it out.  But mine hangs below the back of the bookshelf and is relatively easy to get to for this.

fishloverRon wrote:I have this filter too and it's a bit of a pain.  I just pull the whole contraption and take it to the sink to clean it out.  But mine hangs below the back of the bookshelf and is relatively easy to get to for this.

I just sent you a PM asking "how to", you can disregard that after reading this post. Thank you Ron for jumping in, I appreciate that.
I have the canister in a rather tight space right behind the tank. I was thinking about extending the tubes, drilling my stand and inserting the canister in the stand. This would be a perfect place for it but was concerned about loosing water pressure. The extension would be 12-18" more than the stock hoses. If I could fit the canister into my stand I could do a few things to prevent leakage & it would be much more handy. Perhaps I should research a slightly larger canister for this, or do you guys think this small canister could handle extending the hoses? The instructions do say " place canister BESIDE the tank "so I am thinking it probably won't handle the extra head pressure.

Pm'd you back before seeing this one!  I have mine hanging just below the top shelf that the tank is on. I made a rack or holster for it out of coathanger wire and hooked it onto a screw I put into the back edge of the shelf.  The top of the canister is about 1'' below the bottom of the tank it is servicing.

Canister filters are of the devil!!!  

dwarfpike wrote:Canister filters are of the devil!!!  

I   my canister filters. (Rena XPs.)