HOW TO: undergravel jet system - aquarium filtration TUTORIAL

Hi everybody, Joey here again and welcome back. So in today's video I want to show you guys a simple and easy project that will help you create a healthier environment within your aquarium substrate. Now the aquarium substrate tends to be one of the dirtiest places in your aquarium. Not only does detritus, uneaten food, and waste in general tend to collect in it, but it is also placed in your aquarium with the least amount of circulation and oxygen. Even with proper maintenance and care, this can still eventually lead to issues within your aquarium. So it would simply make sense to provide circulation within the substrate to not only provide the needed flow and oxygen, but also to help prevent settling and collection of waste within it. To do this, we build an under gravel jet system. This system is extremely easy to do, low costing, and highly beneficial. Ultimately, all we need is some half inch PVC, some PVC connections like elbows and tees, and then a small pump. Putting it together is as simple as building a ring out of the PVC, the size of the inside perimeter of your aquarium. Now the tank this one is being made for is 3 feet long, so we'll need some PVC in the middle as well to offer more coverage. With the general outline built, I drilled holes as small as I could along the inside of the PVC so that the water flow is forced into the substrate instead of just up through it. Now this is a project that's been in the hobby for many years now, so feel free to do some searching around to find a design that you like best to use as a template. I'm also not stating that every aquarium needs one of these, however they're certainly worth considering. With the basic structure of the jet system now complete, I added the PVC riser in the back corner to attach a pump to. I used a maxi jet powerhead as I do in a lot of my projects as the pump. I found that if I heated the PVC pipe up in some hot water, I was able to form it to the outlet of the powerhead. Once it hardened, I was able to attach the powerhead and detach it when needed and it maintains a tight fit. I also added the sponge to the intake of the pump to ensure I'm not pumping any waste down into the substrate. The size of the pump will of course depend on many factors like the depth of substrate and the length of your tank. However, I find that 50 to 100 gallons per hour should be used per foot of aquarium. From there, I dumped in my substrate and covered the jet system. Now you may want to use a taller pipe for the powerhead and keep it near the top of the tank. That is completely up to you though. Either way, hiding the pipe and pump behind some decoration can be easily done. Once complete, fill the tank up with water and turn the pump on. You're not going to see any movement within the substrate so it does not look any different than the tank does with the pump off. As an added suggestion, you may even want to add a do-it-yourself filter made from a water bottle and add that to the input of the powerhead like I've shown in other videos. Doing that could create an entire filtration system that is connected to an undergravel jet. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I also wanted to thank you for watching and we'll see you guys next week for another project.