Water flow

[mig]

So ive been trying to find different places to place my spray bar and powerhead, but honestly I have no clue if its working or not. Right now I have my Emperor 400 on the back left the spray bar on the back right and the power head in the right side about 4' into the water shooting across the tank. Any recommendations?

[angel]

Honestly I have a load of powerheads and have never used one because I don't understand them. But maybe I'll learn with all the replies to this thread

[jon carman]

I find powerheads vital in my aquarium. I have 3 in my 125g and one of them moves 1200gph. This basically just puts more oxygen in the water by giving the surface more area in the form of ripples. I put mine a couple inches below the water and point them towards the surface. You can tell if its working if the water is making small waves on the surface. This also applies to air pumps/ stones, they oxygenate the water by ripples at the surface. (This also applies to spraybars on filters, put them below surface and point up).

[mig]

So whats the point when surface agitation is too much?

[jon carman]

When it gets on the floor.

[angel]

Is a powerhead better than an airstone, or just a matter of getting one or the other? I've been using airstones.

[fishme]

Other than the fact that the powerhead will move much more water than an airstone, I hook my powerhead to a big sponge filter, which is a great way to add biological filtration while moving all that water along the surface. Another big advantage is that the sponge filters can then be conveniently moved from tank to tank if you need a ready-made source of biological filtration.

I use airstones, too. I like the way they look and they definitely help oxygenate the water.

[angel]

How do u hook the powerhead to the sponge filter?

[fishme]

There's a long tube that the sponge filter fits around. Here's a picture of one from Big Al's:

www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp19170/si1379360/cl0/lustarhydrospongefilter5

I have all kinds of extra tubing laying around that I've gathered when buying other people's tanks. I just found a piece that would fit into the tube that comes with the sponge filter to make it longer. Also, sponge filters are very easy to make, though I haven't done it on my own. I have a couple of homemade ones that I got from my LFS. I'm betting Dennis could do it in a jiffy. I'll try to get a pic for you so you can see what it takes.

[fishme]

Here's how they made the homemade sponge I got for $4:

They started with a piece of tile, like you use on back splash in a kitchen. I'm sure there are many other things that would work. This is just a base for the filter(yeah, I broke it):


Then they glued a sponge to the tile. Don't know where they got it but I'm betting the usual places....Wal-Mart, Lowes, some place like that.


Then they cut a piece of PVC the correct height for the aquarium, and cut a hole in the sponge for the PVC to fit. Note the slots on the left side of the PVC. Those look very uniform and there's another group on the other side, so I'm thinking the pipe came that way. Also, they cut a small hole in the pipe above the sponge for the powerhead to draw water in:


Just place the PVC in the sponge:


And set the powerhead inside the PVC tube:


This one was probably made for a 20, but it works OK in my 30s. I do have to point the powerhead flow upward to get the surface agitation I want, but even it it didn't reach the surface, it would still be a good source of biological filtration, and, for that matter, mechanical filtration since it does take small particles out of the water.

I'm not sure what it cost to make these, but I got two of them at $4 each, and I have tubing and powerheads, so it was a great bargain for me. I'm guessing it would be about $12 to $15 each in a store for a sponge filter of similar size.

[titansfever83]

I'm a big believer of Aqua Clear Powerheads(or AC). They last forever and do a great job to eliminate "dead spots" in your water. You can purchase a "quick filter" attachment for it that works great to quickly clear up dirty water from a recent water change. You can purchase new filter sleeves to replace the old ones but I just buy the blue/white poly padding that Aquatic Critter sells then I just cut to fit and wrap around the plastic piece inside the quick filter attachment. I can post pics if anyone is interested.

Here's a link for the powerhead and the quick filter attachment. I own four of the AC70 model. If you keep an eye on drsfostersmith.com, they put these on sale atleast once a month and it will save you around $10 if you wait for the sale.

www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4644

www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4638&rel=1