Is it possible to use a powerhead to power an airstone?

platytudes

platytudes

AC Members
Nov 4, 2006
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Panama City, FL
Real Name
Nicole
I have a 15 gallon tank with an internal background. (This one http://www.amazon.com/Hagen-Marina-Styrofoam-Background-Bark/dp/B0032GG2HE/ which, by the way, is pretty neat and dirt cheap!)

The incandescent hood has only a cut out for a power filter in the back, so this makes internal filtration the only practical option.

This is going to be a tank for shrimp and very small fish, so I don't need anything powerful...just something to provide a bit of biological filtration and keep the water moving, since plants will do much of the filtering for me.

I have decided on using an undergravel filter with black gravel. The uplifts will be towards the front (so as not to obscure the background) and I am planning on cutting the tubes low so they won't be as visible.

I would prefer to use Maxi-jet powerheads over airstones, but I'm afraid they won't work situated so low - they'll blow everything off the bottom.

So I thought to myself..."Is it possible to use a powerhead to power an airstone?"

What if I connected a suitable size of tubing around the output of the MJ, put in a 3/16" reducer, connected standard airline tubing to that, and then put an airstone at the end of it?

What do you all think? Could it possibly work? Or is it doomed to fail?

Here's a (horrible! sorry!) picture to help you visualize what I mean...

PTOA.jpg

PTOA.jpg
 
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Good question. My thought are that since water is more dense it would have a harder time trying to penetrate the airstone. If you have an air input to the powerhead it might saturate the water with enough air to work. Only way to know for sure is to test it.

With using a UFG you can use a powerhead or reverse it. The gravel becomes the bio media.
 
Hey Nicole, how's it going? You would have to extend the venturi line above water naturally. May I make what is imo a better suggestion? MJs come with a little diverter that you can put on the output tube to direct the flow. Mount it on the bottom side rather than the top and you can deflect the flow towards the surface.
 
Hey John! Pretty good, how about yourself? :)

I wasn't planning on using the venturi line (since that makes the powerhead so noisy) I was planning on connecting an airstone directly to the output of the powerhead. I'm not sure what diameter tubing would be necessary to connect to the output, maybe 1/2"? I could probably find a reducer from that size to 3/16" (standard airline tubing size) and then connect that tubing to the airstone...I'm just not sure that it would really make the airstone work as intended.
ptoa2.jpg

ptoa2.jpg
 
fshfanatic said:
If it were me, I would reverse the flow and blow the water into the tube instead of sucking it out.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea, except the only reverse flow powerheads I know about are Penguins (although I suppose the Regent Walmart ones would work, they're basically the same). I have two MJ 400s, so I was hoping to make use of what I have already.

Do you know of any way to reverse the flow other than with a reverse flow kit?
 
Uh Nicole you're ignoring the Laws of Thermodynamics. You can't get something for nothing! Where would the air that you want to come out of the stone come from if you don't supply air to the pump via the venturi? Unless of course you're just using the stones as water diffusers, in which case I would think that the flow would be radically reduced due to back pressure. Modding a MJ to run reverse flow ouldn't be that hard. You would need to adapt the output of the MJ to the riser tube and put a strainer on the intake for safety of your shrimp.
 
I see what you mean. I guess I was just thinking of them as water diffusers. I expected them to put out a few bubbles, but nothing like from an air pump. The back pressure is what I had not figured in...although I kind of had a hunch that this wouldn't work for some reason, and back pressure is why!

I'll look online for instructions to mod an MJ powerhead to reverse flow...surely it's been done before. If not, I guess I'll study the reverse flow kit commercially available and try to make my own. I am really not very good at DIY, as you can see.
 
platytudes said:
I see what you mean. I guess I was just thinking of them as water diffusers. I expected them to put out a few bubbles, but nothing like from an air pump. The back pressure is what I had not figured in...although I kind of had a hunch that this wouldn't work for some reason, and back pressure is why!

I'll look online for instructions to mod an MJ powerhead to reverse flow...surely it's been done before. If not, I guess I'll study the reverse flow kit commercially available and try to make my own. I am really not very good at DIY, as you can see.
Click to expand...
Off the top of my head a very simple method would be to use an underwater epoxy like Mighty Putty to attach the pump to the lift tube. It would probably be permanent, at least as far as the lift tube is concerned but if necessary you could get the pump out to use otherwise.
 
i think all you'd need to do to your current power head is get an adapter the size of your output and get one that goes from 1/2 inch to what ever the size of the tube is, then make your strainer
 
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