UGF + plants

A

Asthrou

AC Members
Jul 17, 2007
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www.strathlan.com
I have been looking around and been hearing from different sources for a while that an undergravel filter is not the best thing for plants. Something about the flow of the water and the roots of the plants. I was wondering if you heard anything about this or if this is just myth.

Mike
 
My opinion is that I would not use a UGF or R (reverse) UGF. If you need to move plants around at some point, and this happens, the roots will be entangled in the plastic gratings making it about impossible to move the plant without root damage. Under gravel filters are something I would avoid.


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hmmm... that is what i thought about it. On the note of a UGF, does it really do a lot to keep the aquarium clean? or is it there for another reason mainly?


a R UGF just pushes the water up through the gravel? how would that benifit the process?
 
if you use a rfug or ugf..you may want to look at using filter floss on the plates..this prevents gravel from falling thru the grid and heavy debris also from falling thru..it also acs as a 'weed' barrier..keeping most of the roots from getting tangled up in the grid.
there are quite a few who use rfug in planted tanks with success..
personally I prefer to not use rfug in planted tanks..but it does work.
 
star, is there a reason as to why you prefer not to use UGF w/ plants?

Keep in mind that this tank is a community fish tank first, plants are added for the fishies and for asthetics (they just look so much better)
 
if you're planning to use a UGF with plants, go for a "pipe UGF" instead of the normal plated ones. it's basically a DIY UGF which consists of PVC Pipes. some articles are available upon search on google.
 
air-driven UGFs are not the best for plants because they drive out the CO2 that plants need during the day to carry out photosynthesis.

with a regular, air-driven UGF, you should be doing weekly gravel vacs to keep the gravel bed clean. with plants, its not a very good idea to go through the gravel, because it will damage their roots.
 
They do not drive out the co2. That only applies if your tank is co2 injected. Basic chemistry at work here- if there's more co2 in the air than in your tank, surface agitation will help bring co2 into your tank. If there's more co2 in your tank than in the air (when you have co2 injection to saturate the water) then surface agitation will indeed cause co2 to leave your tank.
And not to sound harsh but this guy is looking toward an UGF so i am doubting he has co2 injection.

Anyway, I would strongly recommend that you use a sponge filter instead of a UGF/RUGF. If anything, you can place the sponge part way into the gravel so it sort of acts like a UGF, except much better. Besides, if you want to seed a new tank/filter, it's a tad bit easier with a sponge than with an UGF
 
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