PDA

View Full Version : UGF questions


MiamiCuse
05-14-2008, 06:59 AM
I know UGF is frown upon here but at this point this is what I have so I am stuck until I change.

My air pump is acting up tonight, suddenly got very loud for no apparent reasons. It is a Whisper Tetra 60. I am not sure what is going on. Seems if I only use one outlet and leave the other one open (blowing air into nothing) it quiet down, but if I have two outlets feeding air it gets very loud all of a sudden. I am sick of it and want to switch to another, any recommendations?

Now, as I was playing with the pump and trying to figure out what was wrong I turned up the volume of the air going to the airstone inside the tube of the UGF. I had no idea that would cause a ton of bio waste to shoot up the tube and out into the tank from down below. Am I supposed to have some spongy material inside the UGF to stop this from happening?

Nick_Pavlovski
05-14-2008, 08:23 AM
No, the UGF isn't meant to have any filter material sponge...it just sounds like it's gotten REALLY full of stuff, so that an increase of air just forces it to move.

That would mean cleaning the UGF, which is a really involving job...

MiamiCuse
05-14-2008, 08:58 AM
Can I not stick a hose down the "tube" during a water change? Will that suck out much of the waste below?

I don't want to get out all that gravel and rearrange everything...

Ark6ie
05-14-2008, 09:25 AM
id say that should work.
i only ever used a ugf once, that was years ago. i had no idea how dirty they got until i went to move my tank and found an awful mess. after that i got an internal powerhead lol.
have you considered getting one of those internal box filters that are filled with filter wool and are ran off an air pump? they are usually pretty cheap to buy.

Nick_Pavlovski
05-15-2008, 12:47 PM
Can I not stick a hose down the "tube" during a water change? Will that suck out much of the waste below?

I don't want to get out all that gravel and rearrange everything...

....in all my years of using a UGF (and that was from childhood until 2006), I NEVER EVER THOUGHT OF DOING THAT!

It would certainly help suck out some of it...couldn't hurt to try!!!