Why doesnt anyone use the stones to filter anymore?

[snailaquarium]

Hi,

When I was young the family tank aquarium had lots of warm tropical fish like angel fish and colourfull stuff including tiger worms (or are they laoches/?) anyway the filtering system was basically using the stones at the bottom of the tank which sat on a piece of plastic which had holes in it, there was a tube that goes from the plastic with holes in it goign from bottom of the tank to near the top and then inside that tube from the top was pushed into it a air tube with air omping from a pump. This made the water go up the bigger ube therefore pulling the water from the tank through the stones. However I dont see any youtubers doing this method. Our tank was crystal clear.

 

[Munroco]

Undergravel filters. Some people still use them but most people prefer the modern types of filter which are a bit more versatile.

 

[Retired Viking]

You are talking about a undergravel filter, I still use them in two of my tanks

 

[snailaquarium]

You see I think it would be ideal for my drinks dispenser aquarium because then when I turn the tap on if I can somehow get this to go as a pipe to the tap then it will let me happily take all the dirt from the bottom rather than have to stir up the stones to get it into the water before emptying some out.

 

[Retired Viking]

Sounds interesting, my LFS still has all his tanks with UGF, he told my he likes them better and admitted that they work as well as all the fancy filters but are much cheaper to operate.

 

[Essjay]

When I first started keeping fish it was before the internet. The books in the library talked about these new filters - undergravel filters. But the books also said that the tank should be torn down once a year to remove the mess that accumulated under the plates. That alone put me off ever trying them and I've always used internals.
@snailaquarium did your family have to do this?

 

[snailaquarium]

When I first started keeping fish it was before the internet. The books in the library talked about these new filters - undergravel filters. But the books also said that the tank should be torn down once a year to remove the mess that accumulated under the plates. That alone put me off ever trying them and I've always used internals.
@snailaquarium did your family have to do this?

Yes and it stank to high heaven when we did LOL.. Thanks for reminding me..

That's the only drawback I suppose, its just not easy to clear crap that the current from the water wont be stribng enough to pickup, I have been thinking about this idea of it being in my small aquarium and I think when I open the tap the water will be fast enough to pick up all the dirt, however, I've been thinking how will I get the water to be coming from all parts of the tank bottom? I will need to have a few small pipes splinter off to different locations of it?

 

[Retired Viking]

The major thing with UGF is to do a good deep vacuuming every week which I do. If you do that you reduce much of the build up. I have had them in some of my tanks since the 80s. Back when they were popular many people did not do a good vacuuming or just let the UGF run.

 

[snailaquarium]

The major thing with UGF is to do a good deep vacuuming every week which I do. If you do that you reduce much of the build up. I have had them in some of my tanks since the 80s. Back when they were popular many people did not do a good vacuuming or and just let the UGF run.

I remember now yeah, the stones at the bottom of the glass looked black from the crap build up. We had a couple of crabs once and they escaped by climbing up the tubes. They made it about 10 feet into the other room before dying.

 

[Retired Viking]

I remember now yeah, the stones at the bottom of the glass looked black from the crap build up. We had a couple of crabs once and they escaped by climbing up the tubes. They made it about 10 feet into the other room before dying.

I had one crab escape and ran across the floor and scared my wife who screamed

 

[Colin_T]

If you use a gravel cleaner regularly, you can leave undergravel filters running for years and never have to lift them out. Just push the gravel cleaner down onto the filter plate and leave it there until the water coming out is clean, then do another section.

I used undergravel filters and ran an entire fish room off one big air pump. It was a lot cheaper than running individual power filters, and the u/g filters cost a lot less than a power filter.

 

[Retired Viking]

@Colin_T is spot on, that is what I do deep vacuuming