Undergravelfiltration....

[Jo and Gra]

I'm currently running the tank as said in my sig, with a Fluval 2+ interanl filter.

We get a lot of debris in the gravel, despite weekly waterchanges via gravel vac'ing.

And to be honest, the filter currently seems to slow down after a week, not GREATLY, but ENOUGH to know that it needs rinsing out.

So, we are thinking about going for Under Gravel Filtration.


The question.


How do we go about it?

What does it involve?

Do we still need to run the internal filter?

An using the UGF, how does the "gunk" get out of the tank??

Silly questions?.....sorry, but we have no idea!

 

[CFC]

Undergravel filtration is outdated and inferior to modern filtration methods, if you are having filtration problems then i strongly suggest that adding an undergravel filtration plate to the tank is not the answer.

Under gravel filtration works by water displacement where air bubbles rising in a tube causes water to be sucked through the gravel which traps any debries in the water within the substrate where they are broken down by the bacteria within the gravel bed. This means effective cleaning of the substrate cannot be done as it risks removing some of the essential bacteria from the bed, also UGF systems require a complete strip down of the entire tank at least once a year to clean under the plate.

I would suggest that the problem actually lies in the size of the filter compared to the number of fish in the tank and would suggest upgrading filter sizes to one which is recomended for tanks of at least 30 gallons and prefferably 40.

 

[Jo and Gra]

The Fluval 3 plus perhaps???

If i were to decide to go for that.......how would i swap filters......as in bacteria etc??....

 

[piper]

I’m no expert but I think you can either:
· Run the two filters simultaneously for a few weeks.
· Or remove the media from your old filter and put it your new one.

Although I would have thought the first method is the safest for you fish.

 

[Jo and Gra]

good point.

however, how do i make the "new" media, suitable to run alone?

 

[piper]

good point.

however, how do i make the "new" media, suitable to run alone?

Well if you run the two filters together you will just build up new bacteria in the 'new' media.