Undergravel filters?

[itiwhetu]

I don't know why your sand or gravel should be dirty, this is my gravel. I never vacuum or touch the gravel. The black pipe in the first photo is the under gravel filter which means I have been slack on my tank maintenance(Naughty boy)

 

[Alice B]

Trying to get some pictures of my 55 gallon U/G reef. My ex may have some, I have a very few, but I had a computer lose a hard drive about 10 years ago and lost a lot of old pics. Achilles tang was stunning.

 

[Alice B]

I don't know why your sand or gravel should be dirty, this is my gravel. I never vacuum or touch the gravel. The black pipe in the first photo is the under gravel filter which means I have been slack on my tank maintenance(Naughty boy)View attachment 161289View attachment 161290

Sand is just so fine, it isn't necessarily dirty but a siphon is going to pick it up and I fed my julii cories with the sandbed and they didn't eat all the food and it is sitting on the sandbed, and I'm too tired to mess with the tank tonight so there it is going to sit.

 

[itiwhetu]

That is the problem with sand, everything that is left on the bottom of my tank migrates down into the gravel base to feed the plants.

 

[Alice B]

and that happens with my undergravel filtered planted tanks. I'm too tired for pics, but will post the redo of the 29 and my slightly messy hex tomorrow, The hex is UG, just a single 12 inch plate, I cleaned it up with bleach and restarted the UG afterward back in about 2019, but hey that tank is a survivor, if I have to work, it's ok

 

[itiwhetu]

Trying to get some pictures of my 55 gallon U/G reef. My ex may have some, I have a very few, but I had a computer lose a hard drive about 10 years ago and lost a lot of old pics. Achilles tang was stunning.

All Tangs are fantastic, I never kept Marine at home only at work. I loved them. I have a problem with marine fish being taken off the reefs so even though I handled them at work I never kept them myself.

 

[Slaphppy7]

I think right now I have a quarter inch of clean sand in a hospital tank with 2 corydoras and it's very clean because I rinsed and added it today but I think if I siphon that tank I'm going to end up with no sand anyway, because the siphon will pick it up. I won't run deep sand. I've killed fish with deep sand you never need to clean. I try not to make the same mistake twice

The siphon will not "vacuum" up the sand, unless you jam the siphon down INTO the sand...even then, when using gravity for suction, the sand will not be removed from the tank

The properly vac a sand substrate with a siphon, you swish/twirl the siphon an inch or two ABOVE the sand; the lighter debris will get picked up, the sand will stay put

Do you use faucet suction or gravity to vac?

 

[Alice B]

Gravity

 

[Slaphppy7]

Gravity

Then, you'll have no issue using the siphon with sand, with the method described above

 

[Alice B]

I'm going to have to, there is food sitting on top of the sand in the 10. But I have to go pick up a couple more grandchildren before I can do anything about it.

 

[gilpi]

Undergravel filters work very nicely to maintain lots of beneficial bacteria in the gravel, might not be for everyone though. I have used them in salt tanks for years without issues. The down side is some of the finer stuff that penetrates through the gravel will accumulate on the bottom of the tank under the filter, there are ways of cleaning it that I won't get into. UF are lots of bang for little cash when properly maintained.

 

[Colin_T]

If your worried about sand being sucked up with a gravel cleaner, kink the hose a bit to reduce the flow.

 

[Alice B]

they used to make tiny siphons that were like 1 inch diameter, and there was a squeeze ball to start the siphon, I think Lee's made them, I wanted one for my shrimp tank but I couldn't find one, may not make anymore

 

[Rocky998]

they used to make tiny siphons that were like 1 inch diameter, and there was a squeeze ball to start the siphon, I think Lee's made them, I wanted one for my shrimp tank but I couldn't find one, may not make anymore

I believe python makes one

 

[gilpi]

I don't know why your sand or gravel should be dirty, this is my gravel. I never vacuum or touch the gravel. The black pipe in the first photo is the under gravel filter which means I have been slack on my tank maintenance(Naughty boy)View attachment 161289View attachment 161290

I have to respectfully disagree. I'm not sure what your bio load is but poop and uneaten food have only one place to go and eventually the gravel will get pretty full of that stuff. Yes I know the gravel is your filter but, as with any filter, it needs to be cleaned. A light surface vacuum and you'll be surprised the amount of gunk that comes out. For a deeper cleaning, I would deeply vacuum the gravel by sections, wait a couple of weeks and do another section not to lose the beneficial bacteria.