Underground Filter

[Eebie]

Hi everyone

I've had my tank set up for several months now, and things have settled down a bit, but lately, I've been getting conflicting information about whether I should have an underground filter or not.

The tank I've got is a "Jebo" tank which has the filter in the top of the tank. However, when I purchased the tank the stockist said I should I should have an underground filter as well, which I installed.

So, I just want some feedback as to whether the underground filter is a benefit or not.

Thanks

 

[Vip]

I really think that they are pointless, they serve no filtering at all, all it does is hold all the crap under the gravel witch means you cant really get to it, i say chuck it out and vacume your gravel thats the best way of cleaning your tank.

 

[K-Holed]

Under gravel filters are exellent filters. they are very effective biological filters. The only problem comes when you have to clean your gravel, as everything get trapped in there; reverse flow UG filters can soilve this. Plus UG filters aren't the best if you want plants. If you already have another suitable filter, I wouldn't suggest using the UG as well.

 

[luxum]

I hate undergravel filters. They were top of the line a couple decades ago, but there are much better filters on the market, reasonably priced, such as the various power filters like Aquaclears. UGFs are inconvienient to maintain and require a yearly breakdown of the tank to clean out from under the plates. Procrastinate on that task for too long and you end up with sudden massive fish kill. If you must use one, then set it up so that the water flow is reversed so that junk ends up on top of the gravel and is available to be vacuumed instead of ending up under the plates and giving you a water quality headache. I strongly suggest you use a power filter instead.

 

[yhbae]

They are a terrible way to filter a tank, specially when you have easy-maintenance filters such as AquaClears that are on the market. They do an ok job in bio-filtering, but they do almost no mechanical filtering. ACs do both very effectively...

If you haven't setup UGF, don't get into it...