Under gravel filter

[Wy Renegade]

I have a heavily planted 75gal with the UG filters, an AC110 HOB, and a canister filter. I installed the UG simply to keep some water flow through the substrate, which is about 3-4" deep in my tank. Most of my plants have very healthy roots (which somehow don't get all tangled up in the UG!) and leaves.

I'll admit due to the plants I went about 6 months without vacuuming the substrate; the only thing that happened was I ended up with a severe hair algae growth. A few weeks ago I decided it was time to clean the tank and split out the plants as I'm starting a heavily planted shrimp tank. I did a side at a time, gently removing all the plants & decorations, thoroughly vacuuming the gravel, and re-planting the desired plants.

A side tip... I used a modified UG siphon vac, mine has a small powerhead atop the vac, with the hose leading to an external sump that filters and returns the cleaned water. This setup allows me to quite thoroughly vacuum all the substrate without concern for the water level! The sump has course and fine sponge layers as well as a fairly fine felt that does the final polish. The tank water gets slightly cloudy, but my other filters take care of that in a couple hours!

Jim post a picture of your set-up when you get a chance. Sounds interesting to say the least.

 

[jrc0528]

Here's the pics... still no new algae!