UpsideDown Powerheads??

[joe]

I was thinking about things lastnight, and i was wondering if there is anything rong with running powerheads upsidedown.
What im thinking is that if you have them close to the surface(like many ppl have them) but just upside down, they would be sucking from the top and kinda skiming the surface. bascilly it will just break the surface and still shoot out water in which ever direction.
only problem might be that if they are high enough(which they must be to do any surface skimming) then if the water level ever drops to low they will run dry, but thats the only fault ive though of as of now.

any body else out there think there are any faults?
good idea? Bad idea?

joe

 

[Gmandese]

What's gonna happen is you're going to get an air funnel sucking down into the intake, and when the impeller gets to the air, it'll turn your whole tank into a skimmer!

 

[DEEPWATER]

you have to make sure its not to close to the top ,if it sucks in air it will create micro bubbles

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

HAHA a skimmer with no collection cup! A surface skimmer with no collection means except your main tank itself. I would definitely say it's a bad idea. :dead1:

 

[masterswimmer]

Joe, that funnel effect that Gman is referring to is a vortex. His description is exactly right about creating HUGE amounts of microbubbles......something we all work so hard to eliminate in our tanks.

Besides, what you'd be doing is taking the surface slick (proteins) and surface skimming them right back into your water column. At least with an overflow they are taken out of the tank and deposited into your fuge, sump, skimmer, whatever. But at least it's taken away from the display, not mixed back in.

Sorry to burst all your microbubbles :tongue1: :kidding:

Russ