Undergravel filter and powerhead questions...

[Tim804]

Hello all.
First, I know alot of people do not like undergravel filters, or should I say this is a controversial topic....
Well I just put this Undergravel filtration system (UGF) in about a month ago and I really want to give this a shot..... I have a 44 gallon pentagon tank, using a Emporer 280 filter as my primary filtration.

My first question is I moved from using an air pump in the down tubes to a powerhead, an Aquaclear Model 802, 400 GPH output, 175 GPH reverse flow.

My first question is I have 2 downtubes, should I just use 1 downtube for the powerhead and plug off the 2nd downtube, or should I use the 2nd downtube for an additional air pump or something like that? Or would it help to use 2 powerheads, 1 to push water down under the panels using 1 downtube and another powerhead to "suck" the water up the other downtube and out to be filtered?

Also I was reading on another forum about using tubing to run down the downtubes and siphon out the debris under the panels of the UGF when doing water changes, is this something I want to be doing or do I want to leave the debris under the panels for bacteria growth?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[2e0raf]

i think your sposed to use both down tubes, the theory is as the air pump blows air sown the tubes the causes water bo be pumped out of the tubes as well. whilst this it happening the water that is being pumped out of the downtubes is being replaced by water being sucked thru the gravel. so its the gravel that acts as your filter. at least that was what i was told