"Adam Gottschalk" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"NetMax" wrote:

If I can add to your excellent idea (which only requires everything
to be
on the same floor ;~). Is there room on your dolly for a 2nd bucket
and
a watering can? That way you can cart over a full &, an empty bucket
to
fill during the water change. The watering can gets filled too, for
watering the house plants ;~).

If the gravel-vacuum hose you use will slip over your faucet
(simplifies
filling the source pail) and slips over your powerhead, then you can
gravel vac into the empty pail, and then break the suction and move
the
hose over to the powerhead to refill the tank. I suggest you invest
in
one of these progressive hand clamps with the plastic ends, sold at
hardware stores. They let you clamp the hose to the tank, so you can
easily handle the pail-end of the hose without anything slipping to
the
floor (it's like a third hand).

I would also suggest plugging the powerhead in before you start your
gravel vacuuming. The powerhead would harmless stir the water around
in
your source pail (a little aeration doesn't hurt), so you don't have
to
go near a switch with wet hands. When the gravel vacuuming is
complete,
slip the hose end from the waste pail into the powerhead outlet (this
is
where you need the clamp holding the other end of the hose in the
tank
;~). The water will squirt a bit while you are fitting the hose on,
but
at the bottom of a 5 or 6g pail, it shouldn't splash upwards.

If the source pail's water volume is the same (or slightly more) than
the
waste pail, then you don't need to rush to disconnect the powerhead's
electrical plug. Let it run dry and as soon as you hear the air, you
can
calmly (with dry hands) unplug the power cord :~)

Thanks for the tips! Yes, my dolly board has room for three 5-gal
buckets, and the idea of using vacuum water for the plants is great. I
see what you're saying about using the same hose, but hose is cheap and
having one permanently attached to the vacuum and one permanently
attached to the pump is not a problem. Good to know about letting the
powerhead run dry; already I was wondering if I really needed to
scramble to turn it off before it started sucking air. And I'll
definitely be getting a couple of clamps for the purpose you mention.

Just to clarify in case someone gets the wrong impression, powerheads
cannot be run dry, as the impeller's rotor is lubricated by the water.
If they truly went 'dry', the rotor would contact the impeller walls and
score and melt them, or if the design uses a centre ceramic rod, then I
think that the motor would overhead (the water also cools the motor).

In your application, pumping water up several feet, the powerhead does
not actually run dry. As soon as there is enough air in the hose, the
water will bounce up & down in the hose against the impeller blades, so
the powerhead will 'tread' water instead of pushing it. In this mode, it
will not come to any damage in the few seconds it takes to unplug it.
With enough water sloshing around, I think a powerhead can safely 'tread'
water for several minutes with no damage.
--
http://www.NetMax.tk/