I have a 20 Gallon tank and have been battling cloudy water for the last 2 1/2 months. I've started doing weekly 25% water changes and unfortunately just realized that I should be adding cycle. This morning I did a 50% water change and added some cycle. When I bought my filter in May (Aqua Clear 30 - used to be the Aqua Clear 150) i noticed it had an extra extension tube. I figured it was probably just a spare in case the other one broke or something, so I left it in the box. I just added it to my filter and now the extension tube reaches about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down the tank. Is this acceptable or does it need to almost reach the gravel? I figure this may be a pretty big reason my tank is cloudy because it's just cleaning the same water over and over.
For a hang-on-the-back filter like the Aquaclear, which returns the filtered water at the top of the tank, I've always believed that it's best to have the mximum possible distance between the intake and the water return, which means getting the end of the intake tube as close to the bottom of the tank as you can without it touching the gravel. It stands to reason that you have a more complete water circulation that way, instead of, as you say, moving the same small portion of the water through the filter over and over.
That's not to say that the filter won't work with a shorter intake tube; I just think it works more efficiently with the water being collected as far as possible from where it's returned to the tank.
In the same way, with a canister or sump filter, I like to have the intake and return tubes at opposite ends of the tank, with one tube opening near the bottom and the other at the top of the tank.
The extra tube in the box is not exactly a spare. It's provided so that you can fit the tube to tanks of different depths. If you have a fairly shallow tank, you won't be able to use the extension. If the tank is deep, you may use all of the extension and even add another extension to it.
You can pretty easily cut the tube to custom-fit the depth of your aquarium. You can also order extra lengths of intake tube to increase the depth of the intake.
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