improve or remove?

[daveedka]

I wouldn't personally reccomend removing the UGF. The side with the air lift that is loaded up can be cleaned by running a 3/8 hose down through the tube and vaccuming. This will not get everything, but will get most of it if you take your time. you may be able to vaccum straight through the lift tube with a regular 1" vacuum hose and create enough flow to get a lot of the dirt out. If you don't wish to keep using the UGF just cap the lift tube bases and cover them with substrate. Then you can leave the plates where they are and avoid disrupting your tank. I have left un used UGF plates in tanks and never had trouble as long as they weren't loaded with dirt before I quit using them.

 

[johnnyxxl]

personally I just pulled the plates up in mine and let my filter clean the water all I had was gravel in the bottom and a small arch so I just moved it and pulled the plates out of my 20 when I was using an under gravel. I hooked a second filter to the front of the tank to help clear it up and put the two cartridges in the one when I was done to make sure the bacteria was still in the tank when it cleared out it just too about 3 cleanings to clear up all the crud from the bottom.