Live plants with undergravel filter
- Thread starter thebach
- Start date
If you have pre-filtered the water feeding the RFUG, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for cleaning the gravel bed, other than when doing major replanting just as you would in tanks with normal enriched substrates. That is the whole point of RFUG - planted or FO - keep the gravel clean. I've broken down prefiltered RFUGs after >10 years and the gravel was still clean. That assumes that the prefilter is rinsed frequently (weekly for me). Only conventional flow UG builds up debris in the gravel. Plated RFUG will build up some organics from dead roots, just as do conventional substrates, but that is a normal part of a planted tank and is attended to at 1-3 year intervals with normal dividing of the plants.
Yes, they work just like that. Mine is a DIY Hagen Plus1 sponge pre-filter that I attached to the shortened riser tubes of a reuglar UGF kit. I get the added benefit of of the sponge acting as a debris filter and a bio filter. Inexpensive too.thebach said:
RTR, After that length of time you found no undesirable gunk under your plate and in the deeper parts of your gravel?
None, zilch, zero. But I do multi-filter all of my tanks - those w/RFUG or OE-RFUG as biofilters do have supplemental mechanical filters as well, for current along with particulate removal, so I am not relying on the prefilters as sole mechanical filtration. For all the details, see:
http://www.aquasource.org/CMS/modul...=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=17
Several years ago when that was written up I had not gotten up the nerve to do planted RFUG, but since then I have done and have found no isssues to date - quite the opposite in fact.
http://www.aquasource.org/CMS/modul...=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=17
Several years ago when that was written up I had not gotten up the nerve to do planted RFUG, but since then I have done and have found no isssues to date - quite the opposite in fact.
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Say RTR, how would you feel about this as a short-cut way to clean a UGF or a RFUGF: attach the intake end of a diatom earth filter to the riser tube of the UGF (or RFUGF). Stir the gravel carefully but deeply while the filter is operating. If it works like I think it should, a cleaning could be done with the fish still in the tank.
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I have been known to use diatoms whenever I am messing about in the substrate - dividing old crypt clumps, thinning and re-setting Val, or (when unavoidable) when moving a sword. But I just run it on the water column. I don't see why it would not work equally well exhausting the build-up in conventional UG, but I have not done this myself. If you try and works, post back, that is good info.
RFUG should not build up enough mulm to justify it. If run w/o prefilters it might though- but again I have never done that myself. Since Penguins and their RFUG prefilter kits came on the market, that is all I have done with UG - and that is a long time now.
RFUG should not build up enough mulm to justify it. If run w/o prefilters it might though- but again I have never done that myself. Since Penguins and their RFUG prefilter kits came on the market, that is all I have done with UG - and that is a long time now.
