new tank

hi i have just bought a second hand tank and need to understand the best way to set it up. it has a ugf with 4 plates and 2 conecting tubes. two power heads fit on to the top of the conecting tubes, but the filtter has only 2 conections ie in and out. this is why i can not work out how the sysem was running because ther is no why of conecting it all togeher. the only way i see it is that the filter thakes waterout the tank indipendetlly of the power heads . hope this makes sence. thanks steve

Welcome to our forum!

The aquarium must be very large. Congratulations. The plates should fit together, but it's OK if they fit together only in pairs. The interface between two plates should have no bevel, thus allowing them to operate as one plate. You can hook the down tubes to a power head or just an air pump. It's possible to create too much turbulence, so the air pump may be better than the power heads. In either case, the down tubes will draw water from beneath the plates, which means it is filtered by the gravel substrate. That's a good thing, because the beneficial bacteria live in the substrate as well as plants, etc. A new aquarium setup needs to go through the nitrogen cycle; check our blogs for more details, and ask questions. We're here to help. Getting the setup right will avoid lots of problems in the future.

Sounds awesome!

Do you understand how to set up the plates without the powerhead? If you like, you just run an airstone down below the bottom of the visible tube.

If you decide to split the lines on one air pump, please use an adjustable valve, you'll be happier, that way you can get the flow the same from both sides.

I like this type of setup for any high fin, or tender finned fish. Sometimes the powerheads can dump too much water and actually rip a fin. This happens with young angels.

Good luck with your new setup!

Oh, and WELCOME to the forum!

thanks all set up now

Grats!!!

Pics?