UGF debate... Good or bad to have...

[jayjr98]

The more I read on UGF's the more I find that most people think they are a bad idea.

I've read the following things about them:

1. Too much gravel will restrict water flow through the UGF and cause anaerobic bacteria to grow which will kill my fish.

2. Larger decor, such as driftwood or whatever, will cause "dead spots" in the flow and cause anaerobic bacteria as well.

But it makes no sense to me b/c, if I didn't have a UGF, there would be no water flow through any of the gravel at all... and wouldn't that in itself cause the anaerobic bacteria to grow???

I currently have a 55 gallon with the UGF and a Whisper Power FIlter that hangs over the back... why is everybody telling me that the UGF is a "bad thing" to have? Would I be better off without it?

Here is my current "maintenance" schedule which is a four-week repeating cycle... please feel free to comment on this as well.

WEEK 1 : 20% water change, vaccum 1/4 of the gravel

WEEK 2 : 20% water change, vacuum 1/4 of the gravel

WEEK 3 : 20% water change, vacuum 1/4 of the gravel

WEEK 4 : 20% water change, vacuum 1/4 of the gravel, clean Power Filter
[/i]

[JohnnyOscar]

I voted in favour of UGFs.

I use them in all my tanks. Two of my tanks have full UGF, the other two partial UGF (2.5' x 1' for a 4' x 1' tank and 1' x 2' for a 6' x 2' tank). They certainly don't cause any problems.

I have not found any anaerobic spots in any of my UGFs, but I did have H2S problems at the other end of my big tank, where I used building sand as a substrate.

I have read that UGFs can get really nasty after a few years but that you can get around this by sucking out the gunk every few months.

[magnum4]

UGF main problems efficientcy drops dramaticly when blocked so cannot deal with the waste produced by large fish. And they create an area underneath the plate that you have no control over you can't get to all the areas to clean them. So after a few years the tank may need stripping. With power filters and externals they don't stop you getting to all parts of the tank.

[Jools]

Before I moved out, I had been running a UGF for 8 years. You can clean under the plate by sticking a siphon hose right down the uplift and siphoning hard (use a pump if necessary).

It's all to do with maintenence and using filters appropriate to the fish and plants you are keeping. I have found UGFs pretty good for smaller fish and good in combination with external power filtration for bigger fish. I would also add that I always use powerheads for UGF filtration.

I found they work well with certain substrate moving cichlids like Satanoperca becuase the move the gravel around naturally and do some of the legowrk for you. There are poor with substrate piling cichlids like pikes or synspilums becuase they go right down to the filter bed and short circuit the water flow.

Jools