Lucy

Hey all!
I picked up a box of aquarium stuff at a yardsale. There were a few power heads in it.
Can I cut a slit in a filter sponge and stick the tube in it to make a sponge filter?
One was in box and says it's for an UGF (also in the box). Would that matter?I don't want to use the UGF.

eiginh

Yes! great buy! What kind of pumps? If you can put a sponge on the intake as well as the out take that would be much better. Of course it would reduce the flow, find out the brand and the model and search for the GPH.

mathas

That should work just fine.

The fact that the powerhead was designed for an UGF doesn't make it function any different, but it may lack mounting hardware (such as suction cups). Most powerheads I've encountered that were designed for UGFs are designed to mount to a rigid intake tube that is connected to the filter plate, which is anchored down by the substrate. If you can devise a method to secure the detached powerhead so it's not just sitting directly on the substrate (or if it can mount to the glass without you having to devise anything), it should be fine.

Lucy

Cool, thanks!
One is an AquaClear 201, the box says it's for up to 20g's. 126 gph.
Another doesn't have anything written on it, it looks the same as the aqauaclear in the box.
The other 2 are Secondnature 840's. Aren't they whispers?

Edit: It looks like at least one came with something that you can use to hang it on the lip of the aqaurium.

harpua2002

I think Second Nature is the "old skool" Tetra/Whisper brand. If you take a look at the powerheads and you see a place to attach a mount, you may be able to pick up the mounts on Big Al's. I've seen a lot of parts there.

sirdarksol

I have found that dense sponges can be too rough on powerheads. I bought some of the sponges with the really fine pores and put one on a Penguin powerhead. A few days later, there was this weird humming that was projecting through the entire house. Found out that it was the powerhead struggling to suck water through the sponge and not doing a good job of it. That had set the entire 90g tank to vibrating.
Long story short, less dense sponges are much better for powerhead-operated sponge filters.
They do make attachments for them, too. I've found them for a few bucks on aquabid.

Tony G.

Great find lucy!

I agree with Sordarksol. That's the reason why i cant slow down the flow on my filter.
It is the powerhead, and on the imput it has like a filter housing box thingy where the sponge goes... here's a pic if it helps: