Does anyone have experience of UGF's?
- Thread starter rumblesushi
- Start date
I use both and like the results. I only run a ugf under about 1/2 the tank. Yes you can have to much water flow through one but you can adujust this by using a smaller powerhead, adding a finer gravel or sand to your substrate. or using a deeper gravel bed. With proper flow they both physically filter the water they provide a lot of bacteria to process the wastes and polish the water. never clean more than a small portion of the filter bed at a times or you kill the system. the longer it runs the better it gets. I have never had a problem maintaining one and the comparison to sweeping dirt under a carpet only works if you also keep a composter under there. The ugf performs the same function as anyother filter in that it provides physical filtration combine with bactierialogical processing. It is slower than more modern filters and will not on it's own support the overcrowding that many fish keepers currently seem to think is proper but it is reliable. The only real danger to them is that in a prolonged power outage the could turn anaerobic. A couple of battry powered air pumps can prevent this. In a 150g tank I have used 2 ugfs each designed for a 35g, and 2 overside powerfilters rated for 120g each. It worked quite well even though I had both powerfilters fail over a weekend that I was gone on. The ugf provided just enough back up to save my tank. (something had tripped the breaker in a power strip that the two filters were plugged into.)
Whatever you decide don't buy a fluval because they arereally not that good.Aquaclear110's are excellent.If you are going to get a cannister filter get an eheim.They are the best.
Seeing as my powerhead doubles up as an internal canister, with sponge/bioballs, what would be the problem with using this as a sole filter? Seeing as it outputs 2500 l/h it would be fine on it's own for tanks up to 4 foot or so?
