Under gravel filter

[EOD]

I hope you don't mind me adding a question to this thread. I just got the walmart aquaview corner aquarium from my wife. It's my first tank with an undergravel filter but there's no actual filter. It's just a plastic mesh-type plate with a riser tube and a airstone. It essentially just sucks the poop out of the gravel and pulls it up the riser tube and right back into the water? What's the point in circulating the poop? Should I fashion some type of sponge inside the riser tube?

 

[helfish]

From my understanding, though I'm far from an expert, the UGF is mainly about bio-filtration - i.e. giving your beneficial bacteria a place to colonize (the gravel) with good water flow. You deep gravel vac when you do water changes to get rid of fish poop and other detritus. You've gotta do it pretty regularly, though, otherwise the gravel gets clogged with gunk and your water flow slows way down, leading to anaerobic bacteria doing bad, toxic things to the tank. As long as your gravel stays reasonably clean, you're golden.

Hope that helps, and someone please correct me if I'm way off the mark...

 

[aclockworkorange]

UGFs are like any other filter. Regardless of what the (mostly dated) books say about "it rarely requires any maintenance", it needs to be cleaned regularly like any other filter!!! The bad rap they get is that from "back in the day" (it is an "older" filtration technique) "before we knew what nitrates were", it was thought that once a year was good enough for cleaning. This was wrong then -- through our (or "my") collective ignorance -- and it is still wrong now.

Nothing will eliminate the need to clean your filters. Cannister, UGF, wet-dry... It does not matter. If you don't clean your filter(s) (whatever you choose), you are going to have some serious nitrate issues. Same thing goes for gravel substrate. If you don't clean the he$$ out of it "regularly", you are going to have a really tough time combating nitrate creep (hint, hint, -- use sand).

I use a UGF on my fry/feeder tank and learned my lesson the hard way. I spent all kinds of $$$ trying to address nitrates - to no avail. My mind was set on trying to find a shortcut / substitute for cleaning my filters -- plus -- I had bought into all the inaccurate stuff I had read about "this or that type of filter only needs to be clean every six months or so". IMHO, all of that is pure garbage!!! Unless you are going to spend every dime you have on the types of exotic filtration methods used in public aquariums, regular cleaning of your filters (cannister, UGF, whatever...) will be essential to the long-term care of your tank.

FWIW, I actually "like" my UGF and have no intention of replacing it. I don't power it via air, but, run cannisters with the intakes inserted into the uplift tubes. UGFs not only protect the fry, but, they also have the benefit of keeping the mulm from getting into the cannisters. I turn the cannisters off when I vacuum the gravel every one or two weeks -- and -- before turning the cannisters back on, I will disconnect the intake from one of the cannisters and let it run "unfiltered" into a bucket. In about five seconds, all of the mulm that is underneath the UGF plate will be siphoned into the bucket and all is clean. This maintenance regimen works extremely well for me and the test kits confirm the effectiveness of this.

I do "cheat" a little and have a Purigen factor in my filtration loop, but, I do plan to remove that eventually. I'm confident that my water parameters will remain consistent with what I am seeing these days.

Call me old school, but I disagree bro. Take it from people I know who have been in the industry forever, don't mess with your tank too often and keep up on the water changes.

 

[aclockworkorange]

It's actually amazing to me how many people don't even know how UGFs work and yet they will bash them (not accusing anyone on this thread)!

 

[EOD]

It's not entirely your fault aclockworkorange, but now I have the Zelda song sung by serj tankian of system of a down stuck in my head because of that cute kitty

 

[drdrewr]

Call me old school, but I disagree bro. Take it from people I know who have been in the industry forever, don't mess with your tank too often and keep up on the water changes.

If you don't clean / vacuum the substrate, then you'll just have mulm breaking down in it. This will result is a serious nitrate issue. It is no different than cleaning a cannister filter. We clean them to remove the nitrate-producing mulm. Water changes are good, but, they don't eliminate the need to keep your filter(s) clean. This applies equally to UGF, cannister, wet-dry, power... I don't understand why you think a UGF is different.

 

[fishbum]

If you don't clean / vacuum the substrate, then you'll just have mulm breaking down in it. This will result is a serious nitrate issue.

How will this result in nitrate?

 

[kdrun76]

How will this result in nitrate?

As the mulm further degrades, nitrate is released into the water.

 

[fishbum]

I don't doubt that it will contribute to nitrate,But to say it will become a serious issue is a bit over stated IMO.

 

[drdrewr]

I don't doubt that it will contribute to nitrate,But to say it will become a serious issue is a bit over stated IMO.

I did / do water changes weekly and faithfully so. The nitrates in both of my tanks (one with UGF and the other with cannisters) were so high that they were not measurable. Once I started vacuuming the UGF very thoroughly along with my weekly water change, my nitrates dropped to an acceptable level and my fish stopped dying. I don't think my message overstated anything.

You either "get the stuff out" of your ecosystem or it will break down into nitrates. This applies to "all" filters. When we humans "take a dump", we do flush the toilet afterwards, don't we? This keeps our environment from becoming foul. Cleaning the crud out of the substrate is, essentially, doing the same for your fish (i.e. you are flushing their toilet for them).