AquariumFatasies said the following on 1/1/2008 1:45 PM:

snip

For someone who proclaims to have a "real Usenet" account and a "real
posting agent", I would think you would know how to snip and interleave
responses properly. If nothing else, it makes it a lot easier to follow
what you are saying.

Well I sure am not knocking it so don't think that I am.

After reading it 10 times or so, that is still the indication I get from
reading your reply.

I use lots of powerheads in my tanks both salt and fresh, and stay as
far away form suction cups as I can as I am not fond of sand storms
of holes blown in the substrate no matter if its gravel or sand, when
a suction cup lets loose. Been ther done that too many times.

I use them in my 90 gallon tank but they aren't there as much to hold
the power head up as they are too keep them from leaning over. The power
heads sit on top of uplift tubes from an UGF and the suction cups are
there solely to keep them from wanting to "push" on the tubes.

I make brackets to hang from the top and fix my powerheads to them
at the disired depth and angles.......

Do I dare ask what you make those brackets from?

or I use the typical mag float tank cleaners and attach the
powerhead to the magnet that goes inside the tank. I use Weldon
SOlvent to glue the pump and mount to the magnet clenaer and have
yet to have one ever come loose on me and create a sandstorm
since I started using it this way in many many years.........

Does Google Groups have a spell checker?

I happened tofind a bunch of mag cleaners on super clearance sale one
time and took advantage of them this way......To clean them its easy
to slide the powerhead up from outside the tank and then just pop the
mag cleaner halfs apart just like the typical mag cleaner is
used.......

I don't care for the magnets personally. Nothing more than a gimmick so
that people don't have to maintain a tank properly. I guess that is one
decent use for them as they aren't good for anything else to me. As long
as you have power heads that are weak enough that they can't turn the
magnets on the glass. And, as long as you are satisfied with the flow
you get from having all your pumps on the edges and none in the middle.

The blue foam is typical of what they sell for filter media in many
many LFS and its what is used in the Oceanic Bio cubes......

That is precisely what it is (I even said that earlier in this thread).

what I am getting at is the amount of area exposed is still only
abojut the size of my tyupical sleeve filters, unless you have that
chunk of concrete (rock) on its side like a wheel in which course
then it would have the bottom portion also to act as a filter.

I would look up where I said it but I don't feel like it. The rock is
not turned on its side, it is raised up off the bottom of the tank so
that water actually flows through the bottom as much as it does the top.
As for cleaning it, I simply turn the power head off and vacuum under
it. Trivial stuff.

But once the filter material gets some junk pulled in its not any
different in action than the typical foam filters like in the aqua
clear HOB filters,.

That is true. But, I can clean mine without ever getting wet. I don't
even have to reach in the water. That can't be said for the foam filters.

Either way, people can do it however they want. There is not a solid
rule on how you do it. Be innovative. Be creative. Otherwise, your tank
just looks like something anybody could go in Walmart/Petsmart/Petco and
put together.

It starts to restrict flow and becomes blocked and pump works against
more suction and produces less outflow. its only natural for less intake and
outflow to occur when filter media of any kind gets detrius sucked in
to it.

I fool with my tank nearly every day right now because I still don't
have it set up the way I want. The filter gets cleaned off every day. It
is part of the maintenance process. If a filter is left so long that it
starts to get clogged then the tank has more problems than a clogged filter.

--
Randy
Chance Favors The Prepared Mind