Undergravel to Canister Mod

[Rejoice]

Greetings! I have a little question, I've heard that there is a mod that you can do to hook up an undergravel filter to a canister filter, essentially the dirty water from the undergravel filter and pulled into the canister to be cleaned.

Has anyone done / heard of / or know if it works well?

 

[reun]

well, essentually the "dirty water" is just natural bacteria colonies...i mean, a standard UGF uses a pump that distributes the same amount of water that an average cannister filter would.

essentially the "dirty" stuff under the rocks is left over food and poop...eventually that waste is broken down, but, it takes time. thats why if a pump on a UGF goes bad in a small tank there can be VERY bad results.

a cannister does the same thing any filter would do, UGF,over-the-back, or otherwise. it provides a harbor for benificial bacteria....filter floss or UGF's catching debri is just a side affect.

at any rate, i dont see why it would be a bad thing, i dont see how it would serve any extra good than having a cannister and a seperate UGF...I personally like to run multiple filters incase one of them goes bad, this is especially true with UGF's. technically, if the filters were run seperately, if either one of the pumps went bad there is a lesser chance of tank occupants dieing.

i do know one thing, if you are running a smaller tank, i wouldnt get a UGF tray covering the whole tank. i guess its cause i am overly careful. i just would worry about what would happen if the power went out or a pump went bad on a UGF in a sub 20 gallon tank.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Just fond a way to hook the intake line of the can to the uptake tube of the UGF. If a UGF sits without a powerhead and/or airstone running for a little while , no harm really. You do want to get that waterflow down thru the gravel as soon as possible though as this is where most of the bacteria are housed (if the UGF is all you are using).

As an example, on my FW 30 I run a FLuval 404 and UGF (I love UGFs btw). I turn off the powerhead and can when I feed. On more than one occassion I have forgotten to turn them back on and not noticed until the next day (at least twice 2 days as I feed every other day) and no harm at all. Just flicked them back on and all is well.

 

[reun]

well, if the tank ang UGF are maintained well, the danger is less. I am not saying to never use a UGF, they work well. I am just saying to use caution and if possible, keep the cannister and the UGH seperate. that is just my opinion though, and it can be taken with a large grain of salt.