A Primer on Aquarium Water Pumps

In the aquarium hobby, there is a gray area distinguishing between powerheads and water pumps. For those not familiar with the use of under-gravel filters, powerheads were the first submersible (some actually were NOT submersible) pumps we could use to draw the water up the lift tube of an under gravel filter and eliminate using an air pump and airstones. With their first introduction, powerheads were seen as a major advancement and quickly replaced air pumps.

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Aquarium Adventures: the Development of the Wet/Dry Filter

Once upon a time we only had access to rather primitive forms of filtration for the marine aquarium. Undergravel filters were usually the filter of choice. This required the use of crushed coral or dolomite for the substrate, since sand would be too fine to work with the undergravel filter. These filters were excellent biological filters and did a fairly good job at mechanical filtration.

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