I'm thinking about setting up a mattenfilter/RUGF. Does anyone see a problem with that combo? The one thing I thought of was possible surface film due to lack of agitation. Anyone have an opinion on that? Thanks!
mattenfilter/RUGF combo --- good idea?
- Thread starter cellodaisy
- Start date
I had a RUGF for a salt tank I had many years ago. In those days UGF were popular and reverse flow was on the cutting edge. Easy part of going Reverse flow is if you don't like it you can go back to straight flow and still have a killer filter
I don't think a "straight flow" UGF would work well in combination with a mattenfilter, but I guess I could throw in another pump and operate them as completely separate filters if it came to that.
My reasoning is that
1) I like the simplicity of the mattenfilter (meaning fewer ways to dump a tank full of water on my floor) and
2) I'm a lazy bum who wants to cut down on the gravel vaccing. I'm good with water changes, but trying to get all the crud out from around my substrate (which is large river rocks) is a pain.
I'll always do some vaccing when I do water changes (got the siphon going anyway, so why not?), but it would be nice to reduce the need. Again, not looking to cut back on water changes, just reduce the crud in the rocks. Yes, I know it just ends up in the filter. I like that better for some reason. I never said I made sense. 
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I have used RUGF with power heads and sponge over the power head instakes. I am not sure how you are going to connect the mattenfilter to RUGF. Mattenfilter is air pump driven, while typical RUGF is powerhead driven. You do not want to have air blowing under the UGF. Also, the intake of powerhead will need to be protected by sponge filter to the powerhead from turning into a meat grinder.