Others have just extended the uptakes of their filters to just off the floor and had good results. Having the uptakes where debris tends to eddy works best. We have an extremely swift current in the tank. The water hits the wall 3' away and starts boomeranging back. Small 300 gallon tank (big tank not done yet) with mechanical filtration consisting of two RTL-25 filters run with a ReeFlo Hammerhead pump. The real beauty of this system (besides no vacuuming) is that we have a pipe plumbed into the system that runs under the house to the patio. Opening a valve can drain the tank via the poop suckers. We also have a 55 gallon tank sitting on a high shelf in the equipment room plumbed into the system with hot/cold water lines from the utility sink. When we are done draining the main tank, we close the drain valve and open the fill valve and turn the pump back on. Water literally gets pumped into the main tank through our mechanical filtration. We went with RTL filters because we didn't know what to do for filtration. I contacted a man who sets up and maintains reef systems. He sold the RTLs and the Hammerhead pump to us. Since then, I have learned that RTLs are used in large reef set ups. While RTLs are actually a spa filter, there are a couple of aquarium sites that now sell RTLs.
You do not need a giant pump for poop suckers to work. Somebody who read my post years ago just extended their HOB uptakes to just off the floor. Extending the uptake of any filter to just off the floor will accomplish the same thing--especially if placed where debris tends to collect.
We do have a crazy current in our tank which the fish love. Here is old video over nine years ago at the end of a water change. We have a venturi return nozzle that spits out air. Even when the tank is filled, the system periodically spits out air. So we have a swift current with good aeration and don't need additional aeration.
Even our 55 gallon holding tank has a vertical pipe running to just off the floor. Because it is higher than the main tank, water can gravity flow into the main tank (pumping is better and faster though) When our big system is set up, there will be a vertical pipe just off the floor of the 405 gallon sump, drawing water and returning it to the main tank. Yup, I love vertical poop sucker pipes.
Placing uptakes just off the floor where debris collects really works. Thanks to poop suckers, once the backgrounds are finished, this is the only vacuum the big tank will see.
