why is a UGF not good for a planted tank?

HeinekenMike said:

here I recently found out on here that my UGF filter my not be a good choice to start off my tank if I plan on using a lot of real plants. if this is true why is it and if I need to replace it what kind of filter would you recomend that work well for a planted tank? (72g tank)

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Well, it depends on if you are using a traditional UGF or a reverse flow UGF, from what I have elarned from RTR and Daveedka. My biggest gripe with a UGF would be roots in the plate. I move plants a bunch, as I just started a planted tank iN january and am learning about what plants grow which way and how to use them in an aquascape. For me, having to deal with plants sending roots into a UGF plate would be a nightmare.

All the nutrients get sucked out of the gravel and under the filter plate. Plants benefit from a substrate their roots can grow in and attach to. Mulm collects below the gravel and the plants utilize medium. But its debated whether or not the UGF actually robs plants of nutrients. The main problem is maintenance. If you use an UGF, the gravel has to be vacuumed a lot and this is not convenient and sometimes not possible with a heavily plants tank. Also people with UGF seem to be more inclined to tear up the entire tank to get rid of all the mulm that collects. If you have no UGF, you can leave the substrate as is forever basically. Like HArlock mentioned, if you want to move around your plants (and you will) you will end up tearing off some roots because they will be so entangled in the UGF. Also many aquatic gardners use sand as a preferred substrate. You cannot use sand with an UGF.

I would not use sand myself, relatively small gravel is much easier to work with and less risk IMHO & IME. Flourite is my preference, but I have multiple tanks with gravel (with some mulm and a dash of peat) or gravel plus laterite, and they do just about as well.

Don't do you first planted tank with UG. Get your initiation with a more conventional substrate. The idea that UGs suck all the nutrients out is confused at best. With RFUG (I would never do planted UG myself) you just do all water column fertilization, which the majority of folks do in any case.

If UG is already in place, one can use plants that aren’t planted in the substrate - anubias, java fern, java moss can all be grown on rocks, driftwood, plastic canvas. Easy to move around and get under. I’ve had no problem. Floating plants work as well. Of course if you're not set up and are actually planning, a different route would be better.