# Should this have worked?



## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

I slapped a few pieces of PVC together and tried to make a water changer. It did not pump water out of the trash can like I intended.

Is it because the pump by design does not provide adequate suction to overcome gravity? That is my first thought. Second thought, which I doubt. Is that the PVC is not glued and allowing air to escape.


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## cichlid_crazy (Jul 24, 2012)

isnt the pump supposed to be submerged??


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

I thought that mag drives could be either or. But I could be wrong


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

More searches have indicated that the mag drive can be used externally. But I can't find anything about how much suction they can create.

Everything is just pushed together and is not sealed, so there would be some air getting in that could be preventing suction.

I don't want to permanently cement all these fittings if the pump Cannot handle sucking water up.

Anyone have any ideas?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Have you tried to manually prime it?


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

fusion said:


> Have you tried to manually prime it?


I didn't even think of trying that


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Did it work?


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

I will have to try it tomorrow hopefully. I used this set up to do my water changes.









Not nearly as cool as if my intended plan was, but still made very quick work of the water change.

On the top is a street 90. I slip on a barbed 3/4" To fill the tank with a clear vinyl hose, and slip on a water hose adapter to drain the tank out into one of my citrus trees.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

When I turned off the pump I could hear it sucking air through the street ell. Maybe it not being sealed tight is what the problem is. I wonder if silicone will seal it up good enough for a test, and still be removable if it doesn't work.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

The pump needs to be either submerged or fully primed with water to operate properly. The dry fit PVC fittings don't really help the situation on the suction side and could definitely blow apart or leak on the pressure side. Silicone won't create a secure assembly with PVC, use the correct solvent to weld it.

Why not just set the pump in the bottom of the can, use a prefilter on it to prevent any debris that 'might' get drawn into the pump and use hose (vinyl or garden hose) to dispense water into or out of the aquarium? It would be a much simpler setup and you could still use PVC pipe, ball valve and a hose to PVC adapter to make it work easier.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

To get a better seal just while your testing it, try a few wraps of thread tape on the joints


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Deeda said:


> The pump needs to be either submerged or fully primed with water to operate properly. The dry fit PVC fittings don't really help the situation on the suction side and could definitely blow apart or leak on the pressure side. Silicone won't create a secure assembly with PVC, use the correct solvent to weld it.
> 
> Why not just set the pump in the bottom of the can, use a prefilter on it to prevent any debris that 'might' get drawn into the pump and use hose (vinyl or garden hose) to dispense water into or out of the aquarium? It would be a much simpler setup and you could still use PVC pipe, ball valve and a hose to PVC adapter to make it work easier.


Thanks deeda, that pushed me into the right direction on plumbing it while submerged. I need to work through the ball valve set up to "turn on". Suction from the bottom of the can.


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