Under Gravel Jet

[bitteraspects]

i 10000000% disagree.... the gravel in a UGF is the media for the bacteria to grow on. the flow through the gravel brings "dirty" (water with ammonia/nitrite) water through the gravel where it has contact time w/the bacteria. the bacteria consume the ammonia and convert to nitrite and after it is nitrite to nitrate.
as far as your comment about UGF's meant to work with filter and not as filter you are misinformed. before there were "modern day" filters, people ran enitre tanks with nothing but UGF's. i actually used a 30 gallon tank 1/2 filled w/gravel as a sump with a UGF running in it as a filter for a 125 gallon stocked with LOTS of fish at one point in my younger life. it was an inexpensive Wet/dry so to speak.

lol

He's not talking about an undergravel filter. Simply undergravel jets. They are just pvc pipes running under the gravel, connected to a pump, with multiple openings coming up out of the substrate. This is solely for water movement. True, there is probably beneficial bacteria living inside the tubes that may die, but the gravel plus water filter system he has should be more than able to cope with any spike that would produce.

The biggest concern would be making sure that there is still sufficient water movement at the bottom level of the tank. As long as he still has that, then turning off the jets wouldn't make any difference in the tank, except the water would be calmer.

thank you for explaining that. saved me the trouble of typing it out.
as for the whole outdated UGF matter, i wont bother getting into it here.

 

[CichlidAndrew]

Here are some pics to clarify. I only have 4 jets. Not many.

 

[Nic]

put a ray in there and see if it likes or doesnt like the flow...

 

[abortedsoul]

Under gravel jets can be something you turn on only occasionally to help blow up the sediments to where your filter can suck them up, thus avoiding the unhealthy dead spots and anaerobic decomposition.

 

[SovietFireExtinguisher]

My ray constantly digs in the substrate himself so if there were any unhealthy dead spots in my tank, I would be stunned.

Let us know if you ray likes it though.