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Hi,

I am planning on setting up a 20-30 gallon river tank with two powerheads providing current and filtering water with the help of sponges on the intake end. The problem is that I don't use and prefer not to use a deep gravel bed and so the pipes running from the sponges to the powerheads would show through the gravel. To solve this issue I was thinking of taking a piece of acrylic the size of the tank bottom and three strips to create two water channels, each with same cross-sectional volume/area as a 1/2 inch diameter pipe, beneath the gravel bed betweed the upper sheet and tank bottom that I would connect to the powerheads using acrylic pipe glued to the upper sheet of acrylic. Any suggestions or thoughs on this?

thanks
BK

I could be way off here, but it seems to me that you wouldn't need to create channels equivalent to 1/2" pipe. You could just use some acrylic strips to hold the sheet off the bottom of the tank creating a single void (filled with water of course). Your intake sponges would then feed down through your substrate and acrylic sheet to this waterway. The two powerheads would simply draw the water from the reservoir under the acrylic sheet. I don't think you need a separate supply line for each powerhead. Hope this makes sense.

i wanted to have seperate channels because i have heard of people having suction/flow problems when the two powerhead intakes are linked together and wanted to avoid a similar problem. the two channels don'n need to be exactly equal to 1/2 inch pipe but i figured they should be at least that size since thats the size pipe the powerheads would require if i used regular pipe.

You are right when you say flow is based on cross sectional area. Why not take your two large pipes, and branch them down to many small pipes under the gravel?

hi,

i got all the stuff the other day( plexiglass plate, pipe and weld on 3 acrylic glue) and am ordering the powerheads today. i decided to try it because if it doesn't work out no big deal the stuff was only $18 and the pumps i can use in other tanks, i'll let you all know how it turns out. i hope to have it finished by the end of the month.

thanks,
BK

hi,

well i built it about a month ago, worked well and created a nice strong river current but made too much noise with the cheap pumps i had. when i get out of school for christmas break i am going to try and find some better pumps.

anyone have any suggestions for some high quality powerheads/submersible pumps that put out 250-400 galons per hour? i might try some penguins next. The sonic power heads i had had the power but the impeller was to loud.