Air-powered UGF

[specialk]

I have an air-powered Aqua-Clear UGF in a 20G tank. I see lots of small debris flying around in the tank, not clouding it, but still floating. Is this normal? Is my airstone causing a greater upcurrent than the UGF is downcurrent and making the water turbulent?

Should I invest in a powerhead or an internal filter to solve this problem or am I over-reacting to something everyone gets?

[snakeskinner]

air powered UGF's definitely don't do the job as well in my opinion, it could definitely be a result of this. I plan to get a UGF setup with a powerhead in reverse flow for my 55 gallon someday. Right now I'm running penguin power filters and they do a really good job. You may want to put a powerhead in reverse flow (make sure the one you get can reverse, not all can) and force the water through the UGF up from the bottom instead of sucking it all into the gravel like it is currently. I would invest in a HOB filter like an Aquaclear, Penguin, Emperor, etc. and add a small powerhead for the UGF. I sincerely believe in over-filtration. My personal choice would be an Emperor 280 HOB. A UGF doesn't do much mechanical filtration other than sucking it to the bottom for you to vacuum out later but if you're like me, you can't get to all the substrate to vacuum so much is left to decompose and turn into ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. This is the same reason I want to add the UGF in reverse flow to help keep the gravel cleaner. Kyle

[daveedka]

Conventional UGF set-ups have their drawbacks, but can be used and are effective. It is possible to use these as your only filter, but I never reccomend using only one filter on a tank. The stuff you see floating around is probably normal, but will eventually end up in the gravel where it will need to be vaccumed, or it will have to decompose. Snakeskinner makes a lot of good points, I use RFUG's in all tanks, and love them. I always add a power filter because I too believe in overfiltration, and UGF's/ RFUG's don't create large amounts of felt curent so you can filter more GPH without creating excessive current. I use penguin Powerheads, they make a reverse flow sponge kit that adapts them very well to RFUG use. If you put a good sponge on the intake, the powerhead provides some mechanicle filtration and the water being pumped under the plates is cleaner and therefore less risk of buildup under the plates. The next advantage to RFUG is that the water being fed to the plates is pulled from the upper part of the tank and tends to have more oxygen to give your bacteria bed. My favorite reason for using the RFUG is that almost no dirt builds up in your gravel. Light vacumming is all that will be needed on a properly running RFUG, And you can rinse out the sponge quickly and easily when you do water changes.

[snakeskinner]

daveedka, I hadn't thought about the oxygenated water into the UGF. I really wish I'd set one up in my 55 gallon when I started. I just got so sick of them in my old 10g setups that I didn't even look into them. I'm still learning and will probably never get to the level of some of the experts floating around here. good luck all, kyle

[daveedka]

I hear and read about a lot of bad experiences with UGF's, it almost always comes down to mis-understanding or lack of maintenance. usually the result of bad advice or incomplete advice. When someone buys a new power filter or canister, it comes with maintenance instructions, and info on how it works. UGF's come with instructions on how to place them in the tank, and nothing more. The result can be ugly. I had a big advantage because I was introduced by a friend who kept marine fish over a RFUG and that was the first method I ever tried. I later tried conventional set-ups with airlifts, on smaller tanks. The experience I already had made a huge difference. Here is one of the better articles I have seen, I am setting up a 115g tank this week and trying the OERFUG set-up talked about in here.

www.aaquaria.com-aquasource-rtrrfug.shtml