Newbie has something, not sure what it is?

[HrdWodFlor]

I got this from the thrift store but I'm not quite sure what its used for. It is some sort of pump, but for what? Filtering, water circulation? Donno, if you have any advice on how to use it let me know! Thanks in advance.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/HrdWodFlor/0215091726.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/HrdWodFlor/0215091725.jpg

[OldMan47]

It is a power head. The big tube takes in water and the little tube shoots it back out. One use for it is to move water through a sponge filter. In that case oyu would stick the big tube into the sponge filter riser and the power head would move all the water for the filter.

[Rbishop]

Or to drive a UGF.

[HrdWodFlor]

UGF? Is that under gravel filter? If that's the case I have been wanting to build one of those. Does anyone know where I can find how to build a UGF? I don't have a lot of extra money, so I try to make what I cant get. Or? Can this be used to make some sort of gravel vac?
This may be the best quarter I ever spent!

[Matt101905]

Not many people use UGF's any more. Its really just easier to just vacuum the gravel out each week instead of having to do that, plus a bi-annual break down to clean under a UGF. With a UGF debris get trapped under it and there is no way to get it out unless you break the tank down and that can be a pain, and is stressful on your fish. Some people (such as I) like using sand. I just bought 100lbs of white pool filter sand (perfectly fine for a aquarium) for $14.50 Thats enough sand for a 55gal. or even maybe a 75gal. depending on how deep you want your substrate. The good thing with sand is that the debris stays on top of the sand and is very easy to just vacuum out each week. You can vacuum debris off the sand faster than you can vacuum debris out of your gravel each week while you are doing water changes. Just a thought you might consider.

And powerheads are also used to just make current in your aquarium. They don't have to be hooked up to anything to run. Just hang it in the tank or hook it to the glass with suction cups and point it across the tank and turn it on. The intake tube (bottom big tube) needs some kind of screen over it, something to keep fish from getting sucked into it. The screen holes don't have to be little, just something so fish won't get sucked up. I'm sure you could find something sitting around your house that could work. Cheers!

--Matt