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I bought a used 20 gal. tank. It came with an undergravel filter, a small air pump and a powerhead. I know nothing about powerheads. This one is a Regent aqua- tech 3 PH, 120 vac.,17amp, 60 Hz. There are slats in the top where the power cord is attached so you can see like a metal plate inside & I assume the motor is under there also. My question is: Should this powerhead only sit on top on the filter tube with the top half of the powerhead sitting out of the water, ( if I was to use it with the filter) or can I submerge the whole thing under water for use in another tank?
I see no clamps or suction cups or anything that might indicate that it is supposed to be attached to the side of the aquarium or even to hang on the top ledge. I would rather not find out the hard way that this powerhead is not to be completely submerged.

There are few powerheads which can't be fully submerged, and they are normally used for marine tanks. I'm not familiar with your brand, but a quick Internet search indicated it's okay for submerged use. It's odd that yours didn't come with suction cups, but that might be because it's used.

Welcome to the site.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Thanks for the quick reply & the welcome! A quick internet search??!! I have been looking for 2 days on any info. on this thing & came up with nothing! Please tell me where you found information on this thing. Not sure I want to use it for anything, but thought it would be interesting to play around with it in my 55 gal. tank. I have never seen a powerhead before.

I didn't find any sites which explicitly said so, but the picture here (on the right side) showed a Regent fully submerged.

From the looks of it, they no longer have a website. Regent is made by Marineland, but even Marineland's site doesn't have any information about them. Not very helpful.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Ahhh yes, I see the picture......... & it looks like it is just dangling there at an odd angle and not attached to the tank, as mine would look if I set it in the tank. I'm thinking this is just an old model.
I really appreciate you answering my post and going to all the trouble to look it up on the net, and I thank you very much! If you still have patience with me I would like to ask you about one more thing. The nozzel that shoots out all the water, (which by the way manually rotates to the right or left, in a half circle, so to say) has a hole on the top part of the shaft. Could you tell me what it is there for? I stuck airline tubing into it and operated it in the sink thinking either air or possibly water might come through the tubing, but didn't really notice anything. The tubing didn't fit right as if that size tubing wasn't meant to fit there (too loose). Also, under the water there was a mild stream of water coming out of that hole (without the tubing). It was from the force of the motor that also sprayed water out the nozzel, I know that. There are no other gadgets, holes, levers or switches on this powerhead, other than the cone shaped water intake piece on the bottom.
I apologize for being dumb concerning this powerhead, but when you've never seen one & can't find detailed instructions about it on the net, you remain dumb until someone imparts the knowledge to you. You may use my post for , "Dumbest Questions Asked", if you wish. HA!

Nah, it's not dumb at all. It's good to show concern. In the case of used equipment, things are often obsolete or damaged, so it's smart to be doubly sure everything is in good shape.

The powerhead I used to have had a hole in the same place, for airline tubing. The powerhead sucked in air through the tubing then shot it out in the form of bubbles. If your powerhead doesn't work with the tubing, then I'm at a loss.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Well, thank you so much for all your replys!

I was thinking that maybe special larger tubing or even some sort of fitted pipe originally came with this powerhead and fit right there. Maybe some day if I ever acquire larger tubing I will experiment with it. Meantime, the whole thing basically works if I ever want to use it in an aquarium. When it sits half way out of the water so that the nozzel is just barely under the water line, it shoots a pretty good stream of water that would aerate a tank. Don't know if it's supposed to be used in this way, but it works. I'm just playing with it right now since it is something new to me. I realize the combination of water and electricity and fish doesn't designate this as a " toy", but still, it is interesting to me.

Haven't submerged the whole thing under water yet. Husband doesn't think it should be submerged & might blow a breaker if I did. If I ever get brave enough to do it, I will wait until he is around & then try it in the kitchen sink, so no fish will be involved.

Thank you so much for your time and trouble and advice! You have given me half the courage I need to dunk this whole thing. Where I will get the other half, I don't know. Ha. Water and electricity scare me.............. as it rightfully should!

As scott stated, most powerheads are submersible, and many rely on this fact for adequate cooling of the unit. I highly doubt anything bad would come from putting the unit fully underwater. I applaud your caution, i wish more people would be like you!! Many disasters could be avoided if it were for a bit of common sense.

Awww, what a sweet reply, thank you!

Are you saying a powerhead that is supposed to be submersed, "should" be submerged during use, as the water helps cool the motor down (otherwise it might overheat & damage the unit)?

In other words, if this unit is supposed to operate totally underwater, then I should not operate it sitting half way out of the water?

Point of interest: When I do decide to drown this thing, I was going to do it in kitchen sink with husband around, cause he is still suspicious of doing it. Glad I discussed this with him yesterday cause he said NO to kitchen sink! We have a stainless steel sink.......... conducts electricity, if anything goes wrong! I never thought about that. He said if I insist on trying, we will do it outside back door in a plastic bucket. Goes to show.......... you can never be too careful when it comes to electricity. Better to be safe than sorry, so discuss and ask those questions before hand! (Said for the benefit of beginners like me)

If you can, operate it fully submerged. Although it's not IMPERITAVE to the operation of the 'head,this will give adequate cooling and prevent damage to the unit.

I've got a few aquired powerheads with no labels to say what they are. I plugged in a surge protector, dumped the powerhead in a bucket of water, and plugged it into the surge protector. If it was still working with nothing going wrong a day later I used it in the tank. So far the only problem I've had is 1 powerhead just quit working after a few hours and I tossed it. The rest are still running in my tanks.

Awwww........... ok, thanks guys! I now have the other half of my courage to dunk this whole powerhead! I'm sure I will come back here with good news that all it well!

Yup! It's sitting in a bucket of water right now. You guys were right as I suspected!
Well........... what a nice experience my first visit to the forum has been. I didn't get electrocuted & no fuses got blown. Thank you all so much for your replys! I really appreciate your help & encouragement! What a nice place this is to visit! Such a nice little fish haven.