help again

[haen]

Actually this is a part follow up on my "help" posting of a few weeks ago.
It seems that the white mold or white? algae? blobs of something are gone, although there are still some small pieces floating around, but they get sucked up by the Eheim filter, that is, looking at the intake piece.
The other filter does not do much.

Now, I just had a revelation. I never had an under gravel filter before;
always had just an about 2 inch layer of fine gravel, natural color. I had to vacuum the top of that about once every two weeks, with a water change of about 1/3 of the tank the same time.
Plants were thriving, fish were happy, hardly ever had an early death.

Now fine debris is drawn into the gravel, goes into the plastic underwater unit, and bubbles up with the two air tubes, back into the tank, as a slightly "misty" waterflow.
The outlets of the air-tubes have extensions for a cartridge, that is not to be found anymore. I tried sponge rubber, but that gets slimy and does not do very well.

So, the question for you experts out there is: Should i just disconnect these tubes, leave the under-gravel filter piece in place, but not hooked up anymore, and use the two air lines with airstones to just oxygenate the water.?
I do not like little divers, underwater housies, or submarines , so it would just be two air-stones hidden in the gravel under the rocks.
What do you think ???
Any input is welcome. Please soon, because my wife is getting unhappy with a 'misty" fishtank
Thanks in advance.

 

[jlk]

Hi! I missed your other post but i will look for it! Yes, the UGF may be part of your problem here. I attempted to run an UGF on a tank for a few months & it became a proverbial nightmare. The amount of gunk & debris & slime & mold that accumulated underneath of it was VILE & there is not an easy means for cleaning underneath of the plates without ripping apart your tank. Which, i ultimately wound up doing. Not fun. As long as you have another appropriate sized filter for your size tank operating, i would disconnect the ugf & just run the airlines with bubble wands (which you can hide in the substrate along the walls). If your filter provides enough aeration for your tank, you can even consider skipping the airlines/wands altogether. Hope this helps!

 

[haen]

help again.

Never mind, i followed my own instinct, pulled out the air tubes, buried the air-stones/cones through the airtube hole into the underlying plastic structure of the U.G.F., put a ornamental hollow imitation rock over each hole, and watch the bubbles come out like crazy.
At first because of the disturbance of the gravel ? I stirred up a lot of junk.
But swept through the tank with my net, for about 20 minutes, drove my fish nuts, and got most of the floating debris (including some of that "stuff" again). At present, , three hours later, the water is pretty clear, fish are swimming calmly, and even widower albino catfish is coming out of his corner. All is well that ends well ????? Hope so.
Tomorrow i will get a fine pores bubble wand to bury into the gravel, and disconnect one of the airlines.
Next a couple of days to let all come to rest again, and then see if I can talk my wife into letting me get some more fish, preferably mollys, because i like them. And some more plants, to use up the debris that now will accumulate in the gravel.
I also will vacuum the bottom lightly, because some of the debris is probably hiding in the gravel.
Am i on the right track ? At 85 still willing to learn.
HN
p.s. as soon as the water is perfectly clear I will try to get some pictures.
p.p.s.s. Just talked to the local petstore, who advised to add some kosher salt to the water.
How much for a 20 gallon tank ?? IF any at all.