A power head is just the pumping part of a power filter without the filter. Most mount using suction cups to the inside of the tank and just take in water through the bottom and discharge it out the side. There is a screen of some kind on the inlet to keep the worst of the dirt and such out of the impeller. I use them with sponge filters instead of using the air stone to get circulation.
A power head laying on its back. The thing sticking out to the right is where the water goes in and the nozzle pointing upward is where the water comes out.
If you take that tapered inlet and stick it into the top opening of a sponge like this, you get a power head powered sponge filter. You get to choose the filter flow and filter combination that you like because the sponges and power heads each come in lots of different sizes.
I am not too sure that you are going to kill any plants with the proper cycling dose of ammonia. Way too much nitrogen can indeed kill plants but the small doses we use for cycling strike me as just not that much. When I have a tank go empty because I have moved fish around, I keep it cycled by dosing daily with ammonia and I never have any trouble with my plants when I do that. When I have fish in the tank I end up feeding the plants nitrogen in the form of nitrate salts but when dosing with ammonia I don't find that I need the nitrates to feed them.
A power head laying on its back. The thing sticking out to the right is where the water goes in and the nozzle pointing upward is where the water comes out.
If you take that tapered inlet and stick it into the top opening of a sponge like this, you get a power head powered sponge filter. You get to choose the filter flow and filter combination that you like because the sponges and power heads each come in lots of different sizes.
I am not too sure that you are going to kill any plants with the proper cycling dose of ammonia. Way too much nitrogen can indeed kill plants but the small doses we use for cycling strike me as just not that much. When I have a tank go empty because I have moved fish around, I keep it cycled by dosing daily with ammonia and I never have any trouble with my plants when I do that. When I have fish in the tank I end up feeding the plants nitrogen in the form of nitrate salts but when dosing with ammonia I don't find that I need the nitrates to feed them.
