undergravel filter?

[1fish2fish]

i have a 55 gal. established community tank.
it's had a UG filter for more than 10 years.
this tank was given to me by my dad, and recently i've been reading up on whether the UG filter is worth keeping or not, but i'd rather some personal and EXPERIENCED opinions.

i do weekly water changes and gravel vacuuming.
(:

[MonkeyPox]

I hate regular ugfs, reverse ugfs aren't horrible but others like them.

[PostalPenguin]

UG filters are not recommended for most. However, its not becauase they dont work its because most people do not take care of them which leads to high nitrates and poor fish health. If you take good care of the filter and do good gravel vacs they work fine.

[Northernguy]

Welcome to the Fabulous AC!:22:
How are you using the UGF right now?
Does it have a reverse flow power head running it?
I took mine out many many moons ago! It was nothing but trouble and I just didn't like it! lol Too much dirt collected under it and I was never able to remove it.
I'm all better now!(blush)
I like canister filters and HOBS (hang on the back filters)

[1fish2fish]

i've read a few sites that say that when UGF's are in established tanks they do more against it than for it... and i was wondering if that is why the gravel bed gets packed with random bits & etc ( this tank is being restored, no one was previously taken care of it, it had 2 blown powerheads and a dirty canister, and the gravel bed was full of poop >_< nitrates up the ying-yang)

since then i have been able to bring the nitrates down to 40-60 ppm and have a cleaner tank, and now i see that the UGF may be hindering my tank's recovery

[Wild Turkey]

Agree with the consensus, ime UGFS are nothing but trouble.

If you want to clean them out each month, the are much less of a problem.
The best way ive heard to operate them is to reverse the flow using a powerhead, and use it with a small hob to suck up the particles that are blown up by the ugf, rather than pulled down to rot under the gravel.

edit: (g)

[gm72]

UGFs are usually a thing of the past. They tend to trap detritus which compounds the accumulation of toxic elements in the water for the fish. We usually recommend eliminating them and instead running HOBs or canisters.

[1fish2fish]

Welcome to the Fabulous AC!:22:
How are you using the UGF right now?
Does it have a reverse flow power head running it?
I took mine out many many moons ago! It was nothing but trouble and I just didn't like it! lol Too much dirt collected under it and I was never able to remove it.
I'm all better now!(blush)
I like canister filters and HOBS (hang on the back filters)



my UGF is a regular flow with 2 penguin 550 powerheads
it seems to be too much trouble and dirt keeps collecting there and i constantly have a buildup and i don't know whether not to remove it

[1fish2fish]

oh and i already have a biowheel and a marineland magnum 350 canister filter that i clean atleast once a month

[Northernguy]

I hope you clean your filters with the used tank water when doing a water change.
Tap water will kill your cycle every time.
I would remove the UGF and keep the other filters.You can get a filter attachment for the power heads.They are great for polishing the water.

[MCHRKiller]

Here to offer a different insight into UGFs, I run one with 2 high volume powerheads on my 100G SA/CA tank as some supplemental filtration. It has been setup with the UGF for well over a year now. It has had an airline shoved under its plates once to remove any excess mulm under there...guess what? there was little under there. Not because I have a low bioload either, I have a 7" Severum, 6" Salvini, 6" BP, 5" Convict, 7" Kingsleyae Ctenopoma, 3*4" Pictus, 2" Firemouth, 2 Redhook SDs the size of saucers and 2 4" circle regular SDs.

Its the fact that gravel bed actually gets vacuumed...I only have about 1.5" of gravel over the plates and its sitting on top of a piece of quilt batting. Gravel size also plays a big factor. I have a mix of very small grade gravel-M*M sized gravel, the small grade gravel goes to the bottom and doesnt allow detris to get under the plate which it is then held up by the quilt batting then the other grades of gravel do allow waste into the bed where the bacteria can get to it and break it down. I do a vacuum of all the parts of the tank I can easily get to every week and monthly I hual all the decore out and do a total gravel vac and even then its not really dirty at all. I also dig down to look at my quilt batting which honestly isnt discolored very much at all. UGFs on the otherhand are not for everyone and are not the most user friendly filter, but if you want to take the time and setup and maintain one properly they may suprise you in how they do actually work.