fishfreak5
Aquarium Advice Regular
How can i make my undergravel filter more powerful and when I put plants in will it damage them?
undergravel filters
- Thread starter fishfreak5
- Start date
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CaptainAhab
Thanx but no.....
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2008
- Messages
- 2,333
Run it with powerheads (pick your gph). UGF's are not typically suggested for planted tanks.
How can i make my undergravel filter more powerful and when I put plants in will it damage them?
If you intend to grow live FW plants, then an undergravel filter is a bad idea. You generally want your substrate to remain nutrient rich for a planted tank.
fishfreak5
Aquarium Advice Regular
oops sory melosu
didnt mean to put it there ,
didnt mean to put it there ,
fishfreak5
Aquarium Advice Regular
also how do my udergravel is putting out less bubbles does it need cleaning?,how do you clean one?
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
It is a PITA to clean an UGF. The classic way is to tear the tank down, remove the plates & scrub it. You need to do that once every year or 2.
Others have devised ways to get around it - some have siphon vac under the plates using airline tubing, but the best I heard of is using a length of 1/2" tubing attached to a shop-vac. If you kept up with the vacuuming, you can avoid the tear down for a long time.
IMO, the UGF is only good if you run it with powerheads, and best in reversed orientation. <Ie - water is sucked in the up tube & pushing out of the gravel.> In a planted tank, it is a problem. If you have any rooted plants, the roots will get into the slots & clog the plates. Plus, it is even more of a PITA to do a tank teardown with plants....
Others have devised ways to get around it - some have siphon vac under the plates using airline tubing, but the best I heard of is using a length of 1/2" tubing attached to a shop-vac. If you kept up with the vacuuming, you can avoid the tear down for a long time.
IMO, the UGF is only good if you run it with powerheads, and best in reversed orientation. <Ie - water is sucked in the up tube & pushing out of the gravel.> In a planted tank, it is a problem. If you have any rooted plants, the roots will get into the slots & clog the plates. Plus, it is even more of a PITA to do a tank teardown with plants....
Like the others said, I would ditch the UGF all together. I bought one, set it up, ran it for a few days and ended up ripping it out and replacing with a HOB filter. I'd save the money, time and aggravation by removing it sooner, rather than later.
