how to remove UGF?

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fishfanatic

Aquarium Advice Addict
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Apr 6, 2011
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2 weeks ago I got a new filter for my 35 gallon tank it is a fluval 305. I am highly considering removing the UGF now that I have more than enough filteration. I want to know what the best method for removing it is. I have fish in the tank right now and no other tank I could move them to. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Could you move the fish into a bucket or three, with your new filter, for the time it takes you to pull out the UGF. I'd put the gravel into another bucket(s) with tank water as well (and then dump that water... a pwc and the ultimate "Gravel vacuming" as a bonus). From what I know of undergravel filters, you might need to suck some gunk out of the bottom of the tank, depending on how long it ran.

I've also seen foam coolers suggested for moving, and honestly the process your undergoing could be easily compared to that, kind of.
 
So you basically say remove all the fish and plants and put them in buckets then remove all the gravel then remove the UGF plate and vacuum up all the gunk under it?
 
Have you been running the 305 on the tank for the past 2 weeks? If so, then I would do as advised. Take the fish out and put them in buckets, remove the substrate and the UFG, rinse the substrate with fresh water, put substrate back in, fill with dechlored and temp matched water, start 305 back up and put the fish back in the tank. They will thank you for taking out that UGF. Good choice!
 
The fluval has been running on the tank for 2 weeks. I also had an idea... take the gravel vac off of the tubing and suck the gravel up with a siphon... I have accidentally have sucked up gravel before. would this be a good idea or should I not remove that much water from the tank?
 
the only thing that wories me about this is, if you just swap out filters your going to lose all the benificial bacteria thats traped in your old filter, i would say run both filters for a couple weeks which will give the new filter time to establish
you could also transfer some media from the old filter to the new one, to help with the build up of bacteria.

as for removing the UGF, just take out the plants and fish and put in a bucket then yank the UGF out and vacuum.
IMO i wouldnt take the gravel out or wash it because it also cantains bacteria and such lol
 
What I've done when removing my UGFs was:

put fish in buckets

sift gravel over to one side, pull out UGF plate, move gravel back over and removed other plate

vacuum the gravel

refill with treated water, vacuum again

refill with treated water, let filter run for an hour, slowly acclimate fish
 
My old filter was just a HOB so I can't transfer old filter media to the new filter :(. How many weeks will it take to get a nice colony of bacteria in my new filter?
 
How many weeks will it take to get a nice colony of bacteria in my new filter? For the fist week and a half i ran the new filter with the old one.
 
my old filter was a marineland penguin filter so it just had a removable cartridge. Right now in my canister i have 6 total trays, 3 of them with biological filter media, 1 with ammonia remover stuff, and 2 with carbon.
 
If there's room you could just stuff the cartridge from the HOB into the canister. It should only take about 2 weeks at the most to get the new filter established. It's not like your starting with new gravel and you've already been running the new filter, plus there's prolly enough bacteria in your gravel to eat up the ammonia and nitrItes in the water.
 
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