# Anybody here hooked up their power head to canister?



## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

For better flow? I saw where a guy hooked up his maxi jet 1200 powerhead(295gph) to his canister filter....the canister was rated for around 300 or so gph but with media it was doing less than half of that...as far as output is concerned. Anyways...he hooked the maxijet up to the canister filters output and it truly pushed 300gph.....

Has anybody ever tried this on here and if so.....did it REALLY work?


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

I don"t see an issue as long as you remove the impeller from the canister and don"t plug it in.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

lucid_eye said:


> I don"t see an issue as long as you remove the impeller from the canister and don"t plug it in.


I was also thinking it may cause some micro bubbles depending on how clogged the media is.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

A cannister does not need to operate at its rated high output to be effective. Adding a 300gph powerhead to a 300 gph cannister and removing the impellor in the cannister would be counter productive.


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

*BillD*


> A cannister does not need to operate at its rated high output to be effective. Adding a 300gph powerhead to a 300 gph cannister and removing the impellor in the cannister would be counter productive.


This is not completely true. If you are using the filter for bio filtration, yes increasing the flow rate may not be beneficial. However if you have the canister filled with mech pads increasing the flow rate will greatly increase productivity.


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## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

I had a Penplax canister(medium size) whose impeller busted. I threw an external water pump I had laying around on it; Plumbed between the output of the filter and the tank, pump was a little too strong, but it worked for a couple of weeks until the part arrived.
Just remember, any additional filtration is OK, IMO.


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## 123vb123 (Feb 10, 2012)

I absolutely do not see the point doing this.

Either you would get a unplugged powerhead with the exact same l/h in/out put as the canister itself making the powerhead redundant.

Or;

You would make the powerhead do what its supposed to be doing, but block the output volumen of the canister, and therefor either creating air inside the canister throu the intake, and therefore larger preasure in the canister itself, or a smaller filtration than what it is supposed to be doing.

On the other hand, his project might have been to make the powerhead hide that canister (which i do not understand, as its usually the other way around) and look like he was only using powerheads with hidden hoses from the canister itself.

I do have a brother with an extreme ADHD diagnozis, this sounds like one of his projects that he usually shows off and brags about.. real clever!


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## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

If the idea is to ADD a powerhead to the canister to increase the flow rate, then I would be inclined to say it would not make too muych difference. Canisters are engineered for the flow rate they are, moving more water through the same amount of media may actually REDUCE the effeciency of the filter.
Can it be done?
YES
Does it NEED to be done?
NO, but that's where this hobby is fun...it's your tank/fish, try it and see!!! opcorn:


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

Again, if you are using the filter for bio filtration, this would be counter productive. However I don't think you can have too much flow across Mechanical filtration pads.


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