Changing Gravel - Found Old Undergravel Filter Tray

[ChrisChrisChris]

Hi,

Doing a gravel change and found undergravel filter in the tank - My tank pretty much looks like this at the moment...

I have a fluval 403, so this is unused. Do i remove it, or just leave it and throw the new gravel over it? Just wondering if bad bacteria may accumilate under there. It must have been there for about 10 years lol.

Also, is it ok to leave a tank without gravel for a while as i'm currently shopping around for cheap natural looking gravel. I decided not to go for sand as it seems to show dirt (fish poop/other) very clearly and didn't look very appealing. Sadly gravel seems far more expensive than play sand


Thanks for your time and advice!

 

[m00se]

I'd probably whip it out. It's not doing any harm in there in all likelihood, but it's not doing any good, either. Sometimes you can get buildup of gunk under the undergravel trays but it's less likely to be the case if you haven't been using the undergravel filter. If you've had anything attached to that riser on the right then I'd probably take it out as there's likely to be a layer of gunge under there which could stagnate if you don't use the riser.

And yes, it's fine to leave the tank without gravel at the moment, just make sure you give it a good clean before you refill, sometimes emptied tanks can get algae film over the glass if left for a while, so it'd probably be in your interests to clean the glass prophylactically, as it were.

 

[Jallen]

Hi,

Doing a gravel change and found undergravel filter in the tank - My tank pretty much looks like this at the moment...

I have a fluval 403, so this is unused. Do i remove it, or just leave it and throw the new gravel over it? Just wondering if bad bacteria may accumilate under there. It must have been there for about 10 years lol.

Also, is it ok to leave a tank without gravel for a while as i'm currently shopping around for cheap natural looking gravel. I decided not to go for sand as it seems to show dirt (fish poop/other) very clearly and didn't look very appealing. Sadly gravel seems far more expensive than play sand


Thanks for your time and advice!

If you have a gravel vacuum then all of the fish poop will come straight off the surface of play sand.

The poop doesn't go in between the sand and make the gravel all dirty.
If you stir gravel in a tank which is a few months old then mank will go everywhere usually.

If I stir the sand in my tank I get no clouding at all. It shows the poop but you should vac the poop off every week / few weeks.


I would remove the UGF tray. It's not serving any purpose and if you have plants the roots will probably grab onto it and make them hard to move if you choose to do so.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Ok guys thanks for your advice, much appreciated i shall remove it shortly.

"prophylactically" not read that word for a while, can you clarify use treatments? Just give a good scrub?

Hmm thats true jallen, its very cheap from argos i read also (Play sand) and i may be tempted to buy some corys so perhaps its a better idea....i'm not sure. Currently i have a ill plec who will hopefully make it through a bad case of finrot & cotton wool/slimey type stuff on him.

I'm treating my Plec & 2 guppys (only tank occupants at the moment) for finrot, i assume its wiser to treat them whilst the tank is half full rather than full up (Use less medicine etc?)??


Thank you

 

[Jallen]

Ok guys thanks for your advice, much appreciated i shall remove it shortly.

"prophylactically" not read that word for a while, can you clarify use treatments? Just give a good scrub?

Hmm thats true jallen, its very cheap from argos i read also (Play sand) and i may be tempted to buy some corys so perhaps its a better idea....i'm not sure. Currently i have a ill plec who will hopefully make it through a bad case of finrot & cotton wool/slimey type stuff on him.

I'm treating my Plec & 2 guppys (only tank occupants at the moment) for finrot, i assume its wiser to treat them whilst the tank is half full rather than full up (Use less medicine etc?)??


Thank you

Less medicine will be needed if the tank is half full, but I would fill it up anyway and use more medicine as it will dilute any substances like nitrate which will further stress the ill fish.

I used play sand from B&Q a while back.


I'm never going to go back to gravel.
Ever.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

After spending 20 minutes trying to split this coloured stuff from the natural finer gravel, i think i may give up. Its working ok, but taking forever - I need to find a better system which may take a while to put together. Plus its letting the smaller coloured pieces through which won't look great.

Sand is now very tempting (Due to price mainly!!!).

I've taken my undergravel filter tray out, the tank is now completely black and am waiting a few hours for the filter to do its job (I guess i should have cleaned the filter once the tank was clean....DUH!).