Sand and UGF

[MiamiCuse]

Do they go together at all?

I think sand will fall through the sleeves on the UGF, but is there any harm in that?

 

[eshepler]

Sand falling through to the bottom completely defeats the purpose of a UGF. You need a space in between the substrate and the bottom of the tank to get a good water flow and allow your UGF to work effectively. Sand falling to the bottom would defeat this and might even get sucked up the tube and sprayed out into the tank, making the water cloudy.

 

[Sombunya]

Just curious. Why do you use a UGF instead of a HOB or Canister?

 

[Lager]

Sand is not recommended with a UGF. The fine particles will go through the plates.

 

[Menagerie]

Sand falling through to the bottom completely defeats the purpose of a UGF. You need a space in between the substrate and the bottom of the tank to get a good water flow and allow your UGF to work effectively. Sand falling to the bottom would defeat this and might even get sucked up the tube and sprayed out into the tank, making the water cloudy.

Also, the sand may clog/ruin your filter. Filters were designed to move water, not sand

 

[MiamiCuse]

I think the idea of a UGF is supposed to allow the gravel to be the filter media so theoretically most debris should be trapped between the gravel and not in the skinny space below the UGF?

However after some period of time, that space gets filled with junk, as evidence by the fact that if you turn to air tube up high, it sucks the junk from below and toss them out into the tank, much like a vacuum cleaner with a hole in the filter bag,

How do you solve this problem?

I spoke to the guy at the LFS (and most of their small tanks have UGF), he told me to cut a piece of foam or spongy pad and put it below the UGF, so it's gravel above and pad below and the pad will stop the junk from coming back up the tube.

That's what got me thinking, the air is pumped into the air tube and it goes up, this creates negative pressure to pull the water in from below the UGF, which in turn pulls the water of the tank down through the gravel. So if the UGF is lined with a pad below it to take up that space, why not use sand directly above and below?

 

[Purrbox]

With an UGF you have to periodically clean out the detris so that it will continue functioning properly. The most straight forward (also biggest pain) is to break down the aquarium and remove the plates so you can clean under then. I've heard of some easier ways to do this without tearing everything apart, but I don't remember off hand how it was done.

Really sand should not be used with an UGF. Between the sand falling through the filter plates and changing the amount of flow, it just won't work the way that it's designed. Adding a sponge will likely just make things worse by causing the filter to clog up just that much sooner.

I would recommend deciding which you want more, the sand or the UGF and then going from there.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Cleaning is easy with a little DIY pvc (mine isn't even glued). Make an "L" shaped piece of PVC with 3/4 in inch connectors on each end. Cover one uplift tube. Place the "L" shaped device over the other tube. On the other end hook up your shop vac, turn the baby on and watch the gunk fly up through the uplift. Switch uplift tubes and do it again.

Best to do after gravel vac-ing. Be careful not to overflow your vac... PU..

I do this about every 2 months. Just normal vac-ing and cleaning the rest of the time.

But again, you should not use with sand and def not if using this technique. You''ll see your sand disappear.

If interested I can post a pic, since it's due to be done again soon and it's gonna be a rainy one here in the northeast

 

[MiamiCuse]

CaptainAhab thanks. I got the idea and may try it.

However right now I think my UGF is overloaded with bio matter as well as the gravels. This is due to overfeeding while my angel spawn and trying to feed the fry every 2 hours.

I will break it down and clean it thoroughly this time.

However, I am wondering if I move all the fish, rocks, stones and plants to a holding area, then siphon off the water in the tank...should I rinse the gravel with tap water?

My tank was cycled, I believe the bacteria are in the gravel right? If I rinse it with tap water they will be killed by the chlorine I presume.

I would like to rinse off the gravel if it won't kill the bacteria.

 

[CaptainAhab]

save a 5G bucket of your tank water to the side. Dump the gravel in a collendar (sp) and use the tank water to rinse. You should keep the decorations and filter media in a bucket of tank water too.

BTW: If you do a good hard gravel vac and then shop vac it you'll be pretty clean

 

[Purrbox]

You could also fill a bucket with some water and then dechlorinate it before using it to clean your gravel.

 

[JesseL]

I have a brackish tank with a reverse flow UGF with sand. I painstakingly filtered all sand out that would fall through and only used the larger particles that wouldn't. I have a Quiet One 4000 pump that works very well. Keep in mind, I love to experiment and try different things. I've made my own bio-trickle filter out of laundry detergent bottles and lava rock from Lowe's (only about $4 for a 40 lb bag) These work very well.

 

[MiamiCuse]

save a 5G bucket of your tank water to the side. Dump the gravel in a collendar (sp) and use the tank water to rinse. You should keep the decorations and filter media in a bucket of tank water too.

BTW: If you do a good hard gravel vac and then shop vac it you'll be pretty clean

I don't seem to have much luck with a gravel vac.

First, I have bought a couple and they all suck up the gravel and clog up the line instead of like they showed in the ads where the gravel will be sucked up half way and only the dirt will be siphoned off and the gravel fall back down. Mine always seem to take both.

Secondly I plant pretty heavy, so the gravel vac really don't have room to work, unless I pull up all my tanks and driftwood, moss and rocks, it's a lot of effort to take out all furniture to vac, not to mention stressing out the fish, removing and replacing the furniture seem to be a way to initiate another turf battle.

 

[CaptainAhab]

just another reason to suck from the bottom