Reinstalling a UGF

[Cermet]

Did a VERY short experiment (as it turned out): I turned off the UGF's for two days wondering if I'd see any effect.

Wow, did I! Discus are VERY messy eaters and feeding five times a day (young) covers the tank bottom in fine food and a lot of solid waste (all sizes on that.) Since I get home late, I clean the bottom by vacuuming only once a day but after two days, my sand substrate was turning a light brown color (or colour for the UK people) in a lot of places (very fine food and fish solid waste.) This does not occur at all with the UGF running. That unit keeps those fine particles from getting down into the substarte where they are difficult to remove. Not doing that again!

This overall experiment - reverse flow UGF's - is working exactly as I suspected it would. My tank substrate is far cleaner (stays very white) and the tank clean up is more effective. This has, as I posted before, reduced the tank's phosphates from a more typical 1 -2 ppm (with the algae scrubber) to just 0.5 ppm! That is a factor of four improvement.

This new filter setup has also, to date, prevented any BGA from developing - for me, that was a problem unless I did daily water changes of 50%; but then, when my tap nitrates were holding at 10 ppm (they have dropped to under 1 ppm of late), those water changes weren't helping my nitrates, just phosphates. So while BGA did not start, the fish were not in water anywhere as clean as proper for discus.

So, overall, an algae scrubber and reverse flow UGF (not operating as a bio-filter) can hold my phosphates and nitrates to well under 1 ppm even with my huge bioload in the 75 gal tank. Better still, I have reduced my water changes yet have, at the same time, dramacticly improved my water quality. Win/win for both me and the discus ... .

[Sandz]

Cermet, take some pics of the UGF reverse set up. I would love to see how you have accomplished this.

[Cermet]

Here are some more pics. The first and third are repeats for this thread and show the reverse flow undergravel filter power head with its intake spongae. The second is the standard canister (dark blue) and nitrate bio-reactor (filter from hell; dual canisters that are light blue); the third is the algae scrubber (in tank); and last is the tank. Due to wood, the intake pipes for the UGF, canister and bio-reactor, as well as the algae scrubber are not really visible. This is an older pic since, for resons that make no sense, the new pic will not load. That had plants which are a bad idea with near zero nitrates and phosphates ... so I moved them all to another tank. This one now has far more wood and a few plastic plants.

[Sandz]

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

[Cermet]

Just wanted to update this Sundays tank parameters:

The nitrates have dropped a lot and are now under 0.2 ppm

The phosphates have also dropped compared to last's weeks high value and is now only 0.5 ppm

These are rather good values and are due to getting back to the standard weekly cleanings (W/C once a week and doing about 50%) and daily vacuuming at night - I do miss some vacuumings during the week.
Considering the VERY heavy feedings done four to six times a day and how messy discus are, these are extraordinarily low values.

I would like to add that this was a rather expensive approach to avoid water changes but if my tap nitrates ever climb again, a very good way to deal with that issue; nice to have this system up and certified.
The singular advantage with this system over most large water changes and any other common method to reduce phosphates to acceptable levels for discus and this method works without massive water changes and still allows me to have a sand substrate. (I may consider a plant aquarium - feeding nitrates would not be a big deal and it would be interesting to see if I could keep the plants healthy. Would need to return to my old lights for plants since this diode hold is not for plants.)

What I really like now about this solution is the tank’s phosphates are far lower (o.5 ppm vs. 3-5 ppm) than I normally had experience with more often (bi-weekly) and larger water changes.
Best of all, I have zero blue-green algae problems (which really was an issue with the bi-weekly water changes) nor is algae of any type trying to grow. This, more than anything is the best benefit for me - not the discus since algae means little to them but low nitrate and phosphate water is critical for their health.

[Sandz]

This set up sounds great. I am glad you found a good solution to keep a planted tank with no or little to no issues.