Here is my undergravel water jet system. This was inspired by this article and design. Water Movement . I believe that article made some excellent arguments for additional water movement - and I was intrigued by the undergravel jet system he designed. Now, using his concept as a base, I did something similiar. I used the same concept from but instead of using the Rio pump and PVC - I used a fully submersible Maxi-Jet 1200 - and some clear vinyl tubing and some plastic connectors / nozzles I found dirt cheap at my local hardware store. It seems to create some nice flow / circulation on the bottom of the tank.

The GPH on the MaxiJet is 295 gph. I used 3 jets but did not make the flow on each one adjustable. The vinyl tubing and jets are fully submersed under my gravel - with just the tip of the jets sticking out. Hard to say how far they shoot up - I didn't really measure it. I laid out my jets - but in a fashion to drive water / detris from right to left (because on the left side, I have a built in overflow to my filter - so I wanted all the gunk headed that way.

My reason for using the MaxiJet and vinyl instead of PVC is twofold. First, some people who used the Rio Pump found them to be , as they called it, an underwtaer compact grenade. Basically, I had read many more positives about the Maxi-jet for its reliability than the Rio. Second, I Initially planned to use the PVC - but upon getting it home, didn't like how large it was and was worried about my gravel covering it - and eventually becoming uncovered. So I decided to take the pvc back to Home Depot and go with the flex tubing (same stuff that you would use outside the tank if connecting a pump from a sump or cannister back to your tank). My concerns with the 1/2" PVC were probably overblown however as I am sure my substrate would have covered the PVC. I just felt more comfortable going with the flex vinyl tubing instead as the 3/8" diameter tube I used was about half as high as the PVC at the connections (due to the thickness of the PVC pipe and the diameter measurement being the inside measurement).

Anyway, here are a few pics of the finished product (Sorry I had no pics in process):

The hidden powerhead - its located on the back wall in the center of the tank about 2 or 3 inches above the substrate. It is hidden as you see by my driftwood and some plants.



Here is a pic of one of my jets (look at the white tip just sticking out of the gravel:



And here is another jet - You can see I basically made these as inconspicuos as possible - hidding them behind plants or other decorations:



That in a nutshell is my underwater jet system.

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