a matter of opinion ??

K

Karnage

Bored Troll
Jul 1, 2006
3
0
0
the Everglades
I recently have adopted a new LFS, as the one I've used for the past decade or so was forced to close to make room for another new golf course. ~sigh~
Anywhoo, the manager of the new place gave me a reprimand yesterday as I was there purchasing some goodies. It seems that he heartily disagrees with my use of an undergravel filter in one of my planted tanks. This 30g tank has been up and running for well over 3 years, is what I consider to be heavily planted (can barely see parts of the taped on background, lol), a wee bit on the overcrowded side due to another tank rupturing. The ugf was there well before the plants, though since the addition of the plants, I've replaced both powerheads, one with a much lower volume powerhead, and the other with air bubbles, so as not to rip the nutrients from the substrate, as well as to not uproot the plants with excessive flow. It also is filtered by 2 180gph box filters, cleaned alternately. My tank has mostly what I understand to be hearty medium light plants although admittedly, I have only mildly researched this; swords, aponogeton, valisneria, java fern, anubias, wisteria, bananas, and java moss. All seem to be doing well with the current setup, but his adamant stance on things has got me to thinking. Is this just a difference of opinion, or is the ugf really a problem in such a tank?
 
The problem is not your UGF, although not my first pick by any means, it is of course better than nothing. You are running your UGF with an airstone... planted tanks typically dislike airstones. The increased aggitation and aeration cause offgassing of CO2, which I hear is kind of important. BUT, if you're not injecting CO2 or fertilizing, content with your current growth, then why fix what isn't broken? Pet Shop folk seem to always have something that gets their panties twisted (mine was bala sharks in general, and the people who buy them), apparently this guy's big thing was the UGF. Honestly, if you're not going Dupla, or even Walstad, don't listen to people saying your system is wrong when apparently it is doing good enough to keep you happy.
 
The real issue is that plants will grow better without them, than with.
You can force any method, but it does not mean is better than another method.........

Adding ADA soil without a UGF will be much better than with a UGF, I used RFUG's and CPVC pipes for many years, they work pretty well, but I also had good water nutrients, light, CO2 etc, switching to non UG filters made a large difference.

I'd say the LFS gave you good advice.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Technically, its not what you "should" do, but if you have evaluated the situation and feel that it is working, its up to you. Main downside that I can see (in addition to already stated in this thread) is how can you clean under the filter plate with all the plants growing there? I used to have UG filters on 2 tanks, (until I got the notion to peek under there and found a nasty surprise. (I also had power filters on those tanks) I found about 1-2 inches of gunk piled up under there. (not exaggerating) I did not have plants in these tanks at the time and I vacuumed the gravel weekly and still had this problem. (also had cories scavenging the bottom) Because of my experience there, I will always shy away from UG filters. But, others love them. I think it is a matter of opinion and personal preference.

So if you are happy with it, thats up to you. and who cares what the guy in the store thinks :)
 
If you are asking and curious, that means you are interested in improving the growth and care for the plants.

Some folks are happy and do not want to improve things for their plants/tanks etc.

You can grow plants in any tank if that is your standard, but having it look nice and be able to grow a wider range of species easily is quite another matter...........


Each step towards improving plant health will grow the plants better. Whether you want to go down that path is another matter based on your human habits/considerations, but when it comes to the plants and their preference, there is no arguements whatsoever, plants do grow better without UG filters.

Like I said, the LFS gave good advice.

I can grow plants without any gravel, no algae eaters, and low light(1w/gal).
So does that mean telling folks that's okay is good advice?

No, but I can grow plants like that, there are trade offs for that method, just like the UG filter.

The real question here is if those trade offs are worthwhile to you.
Since you seem interested in improving things, it probably is.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
thanks to everyone who took the time to offer me their thoughts/opinions,... it seems there are just about as many people saying one thing as the other,.... I guess now the real question that it boils down to is; will it be worth tearing what's already established apart to yank out the ugf? Would doing this be detrimental to the plants that are already growing well in the current situation?.... hrmm,.. well, like I said, thanks, gives me food for thought. :idea:
 
I don't know how hard it would be to remove the UGF with the plants. The plants may have started growing through the plastic plate. But, I would think that if you want to remove, you shouldn't put it off because the longer you wait the harder it may be to remove. I didn't have plants yet, but when I removed my UGfs it did not take long. Just be ready with a syphon incase you encounter a whole bunch of gross stuff under there!
 
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