why sand? Why no undergravel?

[FishSkins]

Ugfs still cant be beat for biofiltration,If your fish arent diggers and your not planning alot of rockwork or live plants,dollar for dollar the best biofilter.
Sure you have to vac the gravel weekly but if your using gravel you need to do that anyway.

i completely disagree after UGF have been setup of long periods of time They take a crash and all the good dies off not to mention when doing a gravel cleaning many time junk get caught under the filter plate>>> MANY old school thing should never have been changed , but the UGF is not one of them

 

[gomezladdams]

Ugf crash,sounds like an old wives tale to me been using them 30+ years never had that happen.Was at a tang cichlid breeders place recently 1100+ tanks mostly ugfs,didnt see any crashing there either.

I have sand in some of my tanks not hard to maintain if you have maylasian trumpet snails.If you use a large diameter slower flowing gravel vac you can clean it the same way as gravel.

 

[Brooklynella]

UGF's suck! Don't know about you, but I want the crap removed from my tanks, not allowed to rot in there!

Crap rots in any biological filter. This is how a bacteria bed is formed, regardless of what type of filter is used. Any crap that is missed by mechanical filtration rots-you can't get it all. The theory that an UGF sucks crap into the gravel as in mechanical filtration simply isn't true. UGF's do not suck.

 

[rallysman]

UGF's do not suck.

Yes they do!!! (unless they're reverse flow )


I've never tried an UGF, I'm fairly new to the game.

I might just have to give one a shot though!

 

[Brooklynella]

i completely disagree after UGF have been setup of long periods of time They take a crash and all the good dies off not to mention when doing a gravel cleaning many time junk get caught under the filter plate>>> MANY old school thing should never have been changed , but the UGF is not one of them

I've never found junk under my filter plates in any tank i've ever maintained.
The"Crash" you refer to is just as possible in ANY filter. Turn the power off of any filter and what happens? A well aerated UGF will not crash unless flow is cut off, then the decline is rather slow.

 

[Brooklynella]

Yes they do!!! (unless they're reverse flow )


I've never tried an UGF, I'm fairly new to the game.

I might just have to give one a shot though!

Reverse flow UGF's blow, not suck.

 

[rallysman]

Reverse flow UGF's blow, not suck.

That's my point

 

[guppy]

LFS don't use UGFs? That is a pretty bold statement. I know of 3 or 4 that use them here, you can't get much cheaper than running just a blower and keeping the store warm. Actually the best store around here for livestock is run on UGFs. Of course it is UGFs with lots of water changes, but still just UGFs.

I guess cetralized systems run most of the stores these days, though.

You are right, the statement is to sweeping, I too have known a couple very good LFS that used them, a more correct statement would be that most LFS, especially those that rely on high turn around, don't use them. Mea Culpa.

 

[softturtle]

Just a friendly debate, no ones at fualt. You are probably right about the turn over idea. The stores I mentioned have nice fish, but it is like 1 nice fish a tank (and they are usually there a little while...until I buy them anyways ). Most of the bigger, newer stores don't use them, and if they do it is in union with another type of filtration.

 

[Brooklynella]

UGF's really aren't a practical choice for aquarium/pet shops or wholesalers. Tanks get broken down often, thus the bacterial bed is destroyed.