Pet Turtles: Priming the Pump

"Ok, the last little bit, as far as hooking up your Fluval goes, so we have our flow control line, we've got our tubes going into the aquarium, let's say we've filled our aquarium with water, well, at least to the water level we want it to be. Then what you have to do is, you have to prime it. This is the hard part, though it's a heck of a lot easier, than it used to be. This little guy, right here, it's a primer and you just have to pump that guy. Basically what you're doing is you're trying to get all the air out of your Fluval system and trying to get it totally filled with water. Every time you pump this, you'll hear a swoosh sound. When the swoosh sound, sounds less like an airy swoosh and more like a water moving, a water sound, you know you're close. It may take a little while, the first time you set it up, to get it properly primed. It could take ten or fifteen minutes of priming it up and down and up and down. It's not fun but once you think you're getting close, you plug it in and see if it's working. If you plug it in and you hear something like (making sound) and you don't see water flow coming through, then you haven't primed it enough. Unplug it quickly, because you don't want to leave it on too long, because running it dry, can harm the Fluval, and then continue to prime it some more. Again, it could take a little while. Be patient. You just kind of have to work with it until you get it going. Like I said, prime it for a little while, plug it in, see if it's working, if it's not unplug it, prime it some more and plug it back in. It's just kind of a game, to get it going the first time. Once you have your Fluval going the first time, you will almost never have to worry about priming it again. They just are that beautiful of a piece of equipment."