Powed sponge filter w/ spray bar

I got bored at work today and started tinkering.  I combined one of my dual sponge filters with a small 90g/h power head and I took some heavy vinyl tubing and made a spray bar out of it.  I tested it in my 10g but I'll be using it in one I'm putting together for a friend.  Works pretty well, but I'm concerned it's a little too much circulation?  The critters all seemed fine especially the tetras who were easily capable of swimming through the current.  My aqueon filter is rated at 100g/h and doesn't seem to move nearly as much water.  Thoughts?

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Many powerheads come with a mechanism for constricting output flow.  Maybe put something like this inline before the spray bar?  Most fish I've kept seem to acclimate to just about any amount of current.

In my experience, the biggest problem with doing something like this is that the sponge filter will clog up pretty quickly. That's another reason for constricting the output (which doesn't hurt the pump at all).

The reason for adding the power head is that I felt it wasn't filtering enough water being air powered, lots of particles floating around the tank. It has a flow controller, but there is a negligible difference between the min and max. I run the same sponge as the prefilter on my aqueon and it does fine, I give it a real good cleaning at regular intervals and replacement sponges are not expensive. The plan was to use this in a shrimp tank, I didn't think 90g/h would be too much for a 10g, but I guess I'll try it out and see. pbmax, you still need to come over and see my little 10g before it's replaced by the 45g.

That's right; I remember your fantastic pre-filter. Yeah, as long as you clean it regularly then you're fine. I tend to take the laissez-faire approach to my filters... so less clogging is better for me.

What kind of air pump did you have on it before? If I see particles in my sponge-filtered tanks then it means I need to clean the sponge or there's some restriction in the filter itself (like the time I jammed part of a tube down over the air outlet inside...oops). I don't have trouble maintaining clear water in those tanks, though I do use pretty big sponge filters for my tank size (swiss tropicals 4" cube filters).

You could position the spray bar at one end of the tank - that way if anyone is less than pleased with the flow they can relocate to the other end.

You're right; I do. It's on my list of stuff I need to do someday. I don't get out much...

lol. Same here on the getting out thing. It has a Rena air pump right now, but I'm not certain which model. Regardless, it's only a 10g. I'll give the sponges a squeeze when I do the water change tomorrow and see what it's like. Maybe they're clogged enough that the air is no longer able to pull anything through them? I'll put some umph into them and see what happens

Sponge filters clog very slowly and you don't notice it at all until the water is less than clear one day. I bet that does the trick. Always works for me.

They're switching me to city of Lacey water next week - no more rinsing sponge filters in my wonderful un-chlorinated well water out of the tap.