Under gravel nightmare

A

Ally100500

AC Members
Mar 18, 2007
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I just finished taking up my undergravel filter. YUCK!!! I do 20-50% water changes weekly, have 2 hob filters and consider my tank pretty well maintained. It's 29 gallons and houses 3 smallish fancy goldies until I can afford a bigger home for them. I've had them for about a year with no problems. I decided to clean under the filter because my water was getting yellowish on water changing day. OMG it looked like I had been keeping potting soil under there!!!

What is the point of having this filter? It's out and is never going back in!
 
Hello there, I used to have an underground filter before. But what I did was that I placed a powerhead w/ a tube towards a box filter instead of the normal bubbler. That way, the gunk that gets sucked by the UGF gets pumped into an overhead box filter and nothing accumulates underneath. I have to give it up though because I decided to have some plants in my tanks.

Some people use UGFs because they do a pretty good job of getting debris. But as you say, it could really be a nightmare as all the gunk just accumulates underneath the tank. :D
 
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Possibly you could insert your gravel vac tube down one of the uptubes so that you remove the gunk when you do water changes ...
 
right, when I had UGF's, for every vacuum I did on the tank, I plunged those with the vac as well. The thing to think about...... the UGF is pulling debris under the substrate in a small tunnel.... there it stays unless you physically vac it out.
 
When I had one, I'd just bore a hole through all the gravel until my vac was sitting on the screen, then I'd start the siphon. Some occasional, random capping of the lift tubes w/ my hand would also help, but I could remove most of the mulm that way.
 
or run a RFUG.
I had to take down my 20 with RFUG it has been running for 2 years.

I found virtually no gunk under the plates.
 
star_rider said:
or run a RFUG.
Click to expand...

Right, as long as your running enough current through the substrate the RUGF will keep out most if not all debris.

With UGF as detailed you should clean from the bottom up since thats where the system stores the gunk.
 
This is exactly why I suggest not to use an UGF. There are simply much better options for the money. Even well-maintained UGFs and even RUGFs can end up causing more harm than good. They are simply out-dated and no longer worth using, like heat rocks with reptiles.
 
I have maintained UGF on multiple tanks for years, with no issues..ever. If you are seeing that much "gunk", then you maintenance routine and stocking level, coupled with feeding routine is no wheres as good as you think you are doing it. Coupled with messy fish and you are setting yourself up for failure.

The UGF/RUGF do not set you up for failure. The inexperienced hobbyist with lax maintenance routines, set theirselves up for the issues.
 
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