Undergravel removing issues.....

[Flohrie]

My new canister filter arrived today, an Eheim Classic 2213.

My problem is I want to remove the UG I have in the tank......I don't want to take the whole tank down as its running smoothly, however I'm sick of the 4 airlift tubes.

So can I just take the tubes out and leave the plates in?? Or is there something else I could do.

I will be leaving it there for a while so bacteria can get established in the Eheim.

Thanks for the help :D

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

(1)you can leave it there and clean it once a fortnight
(2)remove all your fish and gravel to remove it
(3)keep it running with the other filter
(4)keep the ug filter and leave the other 1 out of the tank

[125gJoe]

Reading the 4 options above, I would have to pick #2. Get rid of it. :)

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

doing that could result in DEATH i would do that to with my oscars but we should find out what fish he/she has and then make our dissions if the are small fish i would say keep it in and clean it once afortnight but if over 10 cm i say get them out and remove it which my cause a huge relece of amonia and other harmful substance which will recuire a large if not a full water change think about

[Flohrie]

Ok well I have small fish.....

Neons
Harlequin Rasboras
Angels (Smallish so havn't eaten neons yet ;))
BristleNose Catfish
Clownloaches (Only about 1 1/2 inches)

[Matak]

I would be tempted to just cover & leave it unless the trapped water underneath might become anerobic and start causing problems.

[ryan]

take it out, you'll never regret it. heres what i did when i took mine out... just get a largeish container (i used an empty 20 gallon tank that was sitting on the floor, syphon water into it and put in the fish and somme deco (so they can at least kinda hide). some gravel and maybe a hob powerhead to move the water a little. take water out of tank until you have about half an inch over the gravel. push all the gravel to one side of the tank and rip out the plate then move it again and rip out another, ect. you will now have a few inches of very soupy water and gravel. i took out about half of my gravel and dumped it in the driveway, because without a current going through it you dont need the 2-3 inches i had, i reduced it to less then 1.5 inches in any given place. then i added large amounts of fresh water and syphoned the "soup" out as well as i could, then i added more water and let my HOB run for a half hour, then added half the water in the container holding the fish, replaced the deco, then added the fish, and the rest of the water in the container.

ryan

[OrionGirl]

If you do remove it, I would get the new filter setup and running first so you can get a good colony of bacteria established in the new media, along with throwing in some fast growing plants like anachris or hornwort. Remember, right now, most of the bacteria bed is spread throughout the substrate. Turning it off--either removing it completely, or removing the risers, will kill off all but about the top inch of bacteria. If you don't make an effort to get bacteria in the new filter media, you're going to end up with a serious spike, especially if you haven't cleaned underneath the UGf in a while.

[amy]

You can leave the fish in when removing the plates.

This is what I did when I replaced my UG with a HOB:
Have the new filter running on high to deal with all the stuff that gets stirred up.
Vacuum like mad over the whole tank.
Remove one plate. Vacuum again.
Wait a couple of hours for the floating crud to settle into the gravel, and then vacuum yet again.
Repeat process on the other plate 1-2 weeks later.

Watch your catfish and loaches carefully over the next month. They'll be in contact with a lot more debris in the gravel during the transition because all the stuff that used to hide under the plates is now closer to the surface. This is why you need to vacuum so much when taking the plates out.