UGF and plants...

DarkSoul

DarkSoul

Mad Scientist
Mar 12, 2007
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London, Ontario
I got a UGF, and im just wondering how the UGF and some plants may end up "co-habitating" over time.


I realize the plants will have roots, but im not planning on fill the entire tank with plants, but instead, maybe just having 5 or 6 or so plants in the tank.

The UGF is is just to help the biological aspect of things, but the uptake tubes are now a single piece of my 3d background i have in the works.

Anybody else use UGFs and have plants with success?
 
I see, I hadnt thought of that....

im going to go out on a limb and say the addition of a CO2 system would benefit a situation like this?

i wont be looking into CO2 for some time, as it seems to be quite costly, but with a well stocked tank, and maybe a slower flow on the UGF(less air to the stones or possibly larger bubbles in the tube) would the plants still live and have be healthy?

being built into my background, the uptake tubes would benefit from less rolling bubbling, as it would look more natural.
Currently, they are "designed" to look like a sort of vent in the rock.
DSCF1949.JPG
 
run rfug(reverse flow)
it pushes water into the plates rather than pulling water thru..more effective

uses powerheads and prefilters.

if you go with plants that feed from the water column you'll be fine.(wiseria, anacharis/egeria, java moss, jave fern, anubias, crytptocoryne all grow fine in a ugf/rfug. there are others that will also do fine.
heck there are folks who have little to no problems with these systems.
 
at this point its a little too late to go with the reverse flow.

As you can see from the picture, i would have to make an entirely new background for that type of setup.
As well as buying powerheads for it.

Currently powerheads would not fit onto my UGF.
 
It will still work. A RUGF is just more effecient, but a standard UGF is fine.

O2 in the roots of a plant don't hurt anything. Plants do need Oxygen as well.

Just make sure to gravel vacuum with water changes to reduce the buildup of mulm under the plates which will effectively stop the usefulness of the UGF.
 
jm1212 said:
java moss and java fern will easily live with a UGF when it comes to the root poblem- they dont have any.

the only problem with traditional UGFs is that they allow for to much oxygenation of the water for the plants
Click to expand...
You mean just the ones with airlifts are traditional, right? I sure agree with that.

My UGFs are powered directly through manifolding into a Magnum 350 canister, so I avoid a big surface agitation source...and I use pressurized CO2. Explosive growth. Plumbing your UGF into a small canister would be a good way out if a powerhead will not fit.

Livestock in my tank? Just hard-to-kill stuff as jm1212 mentions, like jungle vals, standard hygrophila, java fern ("stick it" to driftwood pieces by tying it up) and java moss. Lots of plants waving gently in the light current. None exotic, but any green is good.

P.S. darksoul, what was your recipe for building that background? I bet it will look great! Show finished pics in action, please!

v/r, N-A
 
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yes i will show the finished product and steps.... im waiting on the epoxy and need to buy some paint, but i had to buy some other more improtant stuff first :)


TKOS could you please explain to me how i would make my UGF a RUGF at this point?

You do see that my uptake tubes are a single piece of that background.
they have been cut into the foam, and then sealed in with expanding foam, as well as having to layers of cement over top of all that foam.

I dont know how i would go about reversing the flow... it is simple airstones that power this one.
Also plumbing my filter into my UGf may pose a problem at this point as well.
at least without making a new background anyway.

I have a python no spill, so a gravel vacc'ing is no big deal :)

I was more worried about the roots of the plants growing into the UGF plates, i wont be able to remove them once this background is in place.

I would like to havge some cabomba and/or a couple of other bushy type plants for eating, and hiding etc.
 
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