UGF Discussion

[Jdills1347]

I'm running a 55gallon tank with one pleco and 5 goldfish until I up the pH of my tank, then I will be getting rid of the goldfish and am getting some cichlids. Basically I just want some testomonials of people who have used a UGF before and have gotten rid of it. Convince me, hah! Basically I know a couple of draw backs, one being the cichlids could expose it by digging and another was that I heard sometimes it can work against the HOB filters. I just was wondering if people who dont use UGF's now have to gravel vac more often basically and any other negative effects. I will be looking at getting sand later so in that case I will definitely have to get rid of them, but for now I just have the gravel. It would be nice not to have the powerheads showing anymore.

 

[madasafish]

Not much of a "discussion" yet...

I'll convince ya!

UGFs come from an era of fish-filtration technology when ppl still thought it was par for the course to take apart the entire tank every few months and scrub it down, empty out the UGF and plop the fish back in. Well... no need to do that anymore!! Serious HOB filters (esp. those with biowheels) and canister filters give you all the bio filtration you need.

I used a UGF for a while on my 10 gallon. When I had to rinse it out I was soooo grossed out. The darn thing had accumulated so much muck! And, to get it out, I had to rearrange the whole tank in a most inconvenient way.

I've since used only HOB filters (thinking about getting a Canister for my 55 at some point, but I have other priorities ATM). I have never once had to deconstruct the tank and clean it out. I'm very happy with the HOBs.

Bottom line--UGFs are outdated and really quite unattractive IMO. Go with a canister or big HOB for your 55. Careful with the pleco. Is it a common plec? Those get awefully big... Too big IMO for a 55.

 

[Guest]

A UGF draws all the fish poo and uneaten food under it. No matter how well you gravel vac and change water, the stuff stays there. Eventually, it will clog up somewhere under there, quite possibly creating dead spots where nitrogen sulfide and other nasty gasses will build up. When I used to use UGFs, every so often (2-3 years) I'd have to break the tank down entirely to clean out under the thing properly.

External filters (HOB, or cannister), along with a good regimen of water changes and gravel vacuuming, remove the crud entirely from the tank. With this proper regimen, you shouldn't ever have to break the tank down entirely due to excess crud under the gravel.

JMO, but external filter tubes are less obtrusive and less ugly than UGF uplift tubes/powerheads.

 

[madasafish]

Hehe. Simulpost pretty much. Exactly the same advice from us both!!

 

[Jdills1347]

Sounds like a pretty good argument. First of all I have a bristlenose pleco which will only get about 4-5inches, so that wont be a problem. I have 2 Emperor 280's so that should be plenty of filtration. I think about a cannister filter lately. When I get time it looks like the best thing to do would be to tare down my tank and remove the UGF's and put that egg crate stuff down that people were telling me to use. Just have to find out where it is at Home Depot. It will be nice not having the lift tubes coming up which means I will be able to put more rocks and stuff in there. Luckily I only have the pleco and the golds now and I just bought one of the little Eclipse 2.5g tanks so I can put them in there while I tare it down.

 

[Christmasfish]

I have dutch tanks, tanks with ugf and hybrid tanks that are half each..now with sand , river stones and plants on the non -plate side.(was gravel)
UGF is to stay in my small tanks. I prevent the mulm and bad stuff by suctioning through the uplift tube. And all those tanks are pristine (Gases and slimne can hide in too deep a gravel too. You need a thin layer on UGF..that is why it sucks for plants. To be in that current of the filtration....)
With UGF you CANNOT OVERSTOCK. Period. It only allows for maybe 4 more inches of fish than a dutch tank and allows for areation.
I am a dinosaur from the days they sold 5 gallon glass battery jars to hold goldfish (that doesn't mean SERIOUS keepers used em..even THEN) and only marine life warranteed REAL filtration systems (which there were very few commercially made). Heh!



But in tanks starting with my 40 that is where UGF stinks. I may be better off dutch. I have kept a dutch healthy up to 80 gallons. Recently I kept my 18 dutch for a while.
Once I have a contaminate of some type of algae or bacterial bloom it hides in the and re introduces through the uplift. And the huge water changes to get rid of it becomes hard labor. It is too large a plate to properly clean out through the uplifts. Too much remains undone.
I know becuase it was Fiiiilthy in less than 3 weeks..I had to tear apart my tanks looking for a missing fish (it was in a decoration defect). What a horrible mess. I had to bag everyone and just start from scratch!
The clarity in that tank falls short a good half the time I have had it. Maybe if I had less fish.... I am sure if I was slightly understocked..it may not have been a problem. The water turnover for species that desire it is the biggest reason I am switching to a fluval. It is the only tank that ISNT full of current-hating labyrinth fish.
I may get a HOB temporarily, but i think they are ugly, noisy and a pain. Plus you have to keep the water level pretty high if you dont want water that hits the bottom and stirs it up. I do not like the one tank with a HOB. Plus small fish end up trapped in more often than you might think.. just cruise the boards with search for missing fish posts.
I think the ugf keeps a healthier bacteria colony than HOB and that wet/dry is the REAl shiznit. My water params NEVER vary but for two tanks. One is the HOB with the chocolates and the other is the 40 (it has a nitrate reading now and then). But the water gets pretty murky after water change over sometimes with the UGF filters.The pH stays lower than the tap with UGF also.

Anyway point in mind is: if you like to stock to absolute maximum or more..and clarity is an issue...dump the UGF. It isn't designed for it and will become a big PITA!

 

[Jdills1347]

Hmm i c. Thanks for the elaborate writeup. My main concern was that I would have to gravel vac like every week instead of 2-2 1/2 weeks like I have been doing. I'm a grad student and I dont have much time to myself, thus the reason for my concern.

 

[Mr Burns]

if that's your main concern, you might consider holding off getting a large fish load and be very careful about when and how much you feed. also, gold fish and plecos are notorious poopers... if you added an oscar, you'd have a poop machine trifecta!

 

[Christmasfish]

Heh! I was giving you the HOB vs UGF from someone who still picks ugf usually.
As far as messy fish go, UGF is a no-no... Not a large enough turnover rate. And can expose them to cathcing fungal disorders.
Ugf should be vacuumed clean under and gravel no less than every 10 days if you don't want build up. And deep gravel is a no-no because it will actually allow for the dangerous stuff to take over and kill the good bacteria with lack of flow.


EDIT: Whups..Sorry Dude! For some reason the 10 gal kept coming up and I thought your thinking of movin em there...! 8O Since they are going away..I will leave this to the lake cichlid peeps!
Don't know if they are messy as oscar cichlids and golds or not.
I do think they like to dig around..not good with UGF.

 

[Jdills1347]

I'm not quite sure you have read any of my other posts^. First of all they are in a 55gallon right now, and when I redo the tank I am temporarily gonna put them in my 2.5g. I'm not keeping the goldfish, I am setting up a Mbuna tank.

 

[TankGirl]

I have to agree here that UGFs are a pain, and in the long run (which we all hope for with our tanks) it is a source of trouble in a larger sized tank, like Christmasfish mentioned. In my early days UGF's were just standard equipment, and every couple of months I would tear the entire thing down, like Madasa mentioned. There are many proponents of the reverse-flow method, but you still have a space under there for stuff to collect. I just think it is another piece of equipment in the tank that does not need to be there, so skip it.

Obviously there are many who use them, because they are on the shelves of most every LFS.

 

[Christmasfish]

Heh, that is only because they are cheap an easy and they are out to sell - sell - sell those fishies. They don't tell people anything about care for them (which may make them wait to purchase the other stuff later), they just say "..well here ..for 10 bucks cheaper is a 2 buck piece of plastic fo 10 bucks. It that serves a great media platform. Yes, you can have 6 more neon tetra to live with your puffer and common pleco in that 10 gallon..." heh

 

[Menagerie]

Being a Mbuna keeper and a student, I can say a canister filter works great on my 80 gal tank with 13 fish (most still juvies ... lots of fish probs recently ... finally worked it out). I vacuum about every 3 weeks to a month. I really need to invest in a python, but I am still doing the bucket thing. The water parameters are always fine; my fish are fine and breeding (even though I don't want hybrid fry--I don't want any fry right now!!).
These are the fish I keep everyone is over three inches (except one), the largest is between 6-7 inches. : 4 Pseudotropheus zebras (1 blue, 1 white, 2 orange), 2 Pseudotropheus ?s, Red Top Zebra--Pseudotropheus Sandraracinos, Lemon Yellow (Electric Yellow)--Labidochromis caeruleus, White tail--Gephyrochromis Aceii, Rusty cichlid-- Iodotropheus sprengerae, Powder Blue cichlid--Pseudotropheus socolofi, one confused Blue Acara—Aequidens pulcher Striped River Catfish--Mystus vittatus, and one ugly Synodontis
Plus we just added two more Pseudotropheus yellow some bodies (I'll get the name when I go back to the LFS).
You will want to overstock to keep territorial aggression to a minimum. My fish are doing great—lots of hiding spots.
FWIW--they all love zucchini—every last one of them.