Under Gravel filtration vs Power Filter

[Stretchhh]

Here's the thing. I've got my new 648ltr aquarium to the stage where I can start setting it up. It's on a good stand now and it's been full of water over the Winter and Spring. It's now empty again.

Thing is I bought the aquarium from a Chinese gentleman in Mangere Bridge about 2.5 years ago and with it came a new pump, a made in China sun sun JP-025B.

On the floor of the aquarium are 3 or 4 strips of 10mm glass across the width of the aquarium at an angle.

Lying on top of these strips width ways along the entire length of the tank are strips of 10mm glass about 100mm wide.

The futhermost strip to the left is wider and has a whole drilled through to receive the the end fitting of the tube from the pump above. This set up leaves the 10mm gap under the gravel across the entire tank bottom.

This arrangement is to be the undergravel filtration system.

Will this system work or should I ignore it and go for a Fluval FX5. I can afford the FX5 right now 'cause i've been saving. Just means i'll have to wait longer for the fish.

Aquarium is 1800mm long x 600mm wide.

... formally known as Stretch

[ryanjury]

Got any pics of the setup? It sounds interesting..

But in response to your question, undergravel filters do work and they actually work quite well, you would need some sort of pump to power this for a tank this size and a couple of uprights to get enough flow throughout the tank. It also depends on what fish you want to have, if the fish are big and messy then you will have poo everywhere, if the fish are diggers they will dig all the gravel up exposing your fiilter plate making it useless. The best use for them (IMO of course) is to run water being pumped up through the bottom of the plate so it is pumping the poo and stuff out of the gravel and then have another filter picking up the crud. You could potentially connect the outlet of your FX5 into the undergravel filter to do this.

Another consideration is the type of substrate you plan to use in this tank as smaller stuff will fall through the cracks and be useless.

[Stretchhh]

Thanks. My aim, if possible is to get away without the FX5 and rely on the glass pieces across the bottom which the tank builder has built in. and his cheapie Chinese pump. That way I get to get my fish a lot quicker than I would if I have to 'shell out' for an FX5.

The down side risk is if, having got everything together,all set up and that, (with the pump and glass method ) and it doesn't work properly, I have to take everything out again, clean it (the tank and gravel) and put it all back along with $600 worth of FX5 filter.

I've just tried the pump outside in a bucket and it seems to have the power.The vertical tube heading down into the glass at the tank bottom has a powerful suction. The pump has two outlets toward the top at right angles and these both push out quite a bit.

The packaging states '3 in 1' so I guess that's that, 2 outlets and 1 inlet...Some of the extraneous parts as shown on the package didn't turn up either.

I think i'll try it just the same,thanks Ryan, n get the fish in before Christmas . Wow i'm getting close now, how exciting.

Stretch

[Caryl]

I have seen such glass strips before but know nothing about them personally. They would work though.

[Joe]

I highly recommend that you make a sump, because:

A) Your tank is large and sumps are better suited for large tanks.

B) A sump can fit a much larger volume of filter media than a filter (unless you make a little tiddly sump).

C) It's cheaper to buy a tank than a filter, and the FX5 only comes with sponger around the baskets, so you'll still need to buy filter media.

[ryanjury]

Not much point in making a sump if you already have an undergravel filter built into your tank!

What fish are you sticking in it? And also are you planning on doing a planted tank? From memory I think undergravel filters are bad for plants but not too sure.

[Stretchhh]

Point taken Joe Fish but as the aquarium is sitting in the middle of the lounge I don't have the space/place for another aquarium albeit small for a stand alone sump. The FX5 would fit nicely into the stand though.

Anyway i've decided to go with the Chinese pump and the undergravel sewer system. The worst that can happen, I now believe is it simply won't work very well and I can upgrade/replace with the FX5 then (after cleaning out the tank).

I'm not 100% sure on the type of fish yet but I think small ciclids to start with like Rams, Kribensis and the like...the daughters would like those and I want to get them interested...and some fast swimming middle/top layer fish like the danios, I love those. It's my belief that if I start with smaller fish then I can have some plants at least...cost will determine if I do...

My end aim is to have African cichlids maybe, I had those back in my teens and another time I had Red Oscars, maybe those.

[livingart]

yes those under gavel systems work

were popular about 20 years ago

[ryanjury]

Yeah I first kept fish around 20 years ago and all everyone used was undergravel filters I don't think I saw any canasters around back then, apart from that the only other option was your bubble filters or power filters in your tanks. Things worked back then so it will still work just as well now

You should be sweet for your community tank but you would have to use gravel and again I am unsure how well the plants like undergravel filters. Plants don't have to be expensive either, plenty of people on here sell them cheap or give them away and petshops do bunches for like $10 so you can easily stock your tank up with nice looking plants quite cheap providing you have the lighting to grow them.

Africans probably wont be so good (again depending what types you wanted to do) with undergravel filters because they tend to dig them up which ruins the flow and stops the water flow causing the bacteria to die off and a tank crash.

[Snowman]

Under gravel filters were good 10 years ago but outdated now for a reason, think about doing a clean out, how many hours to clean out an undergravel filter versus a canister filter or sump? You say you may get oscars which will overload the undergravel filter and never dispose of the poo let alone the oscars digging in the gravel.

I have 2 Eheim 2217 canisters on my 800ltr + 2 2212 internals that havent been cleaned in 3 yrs and could never imagine stripping the whole thing down for a clean, once a year i clean the canister filters which is about 45mins each (do them a month apart though).

You could go the quick way but as they say "good things take time".

[Caryl]

Having used UGFs for many years, before canisters came along, I never had to clean one out.

[Snowman]

How many of your tanks have only UGF's now Caryl?

Bet you didnt have Oscars in them lol

[ryanjury]

Good reason for running a reverse under gravel and using another filter to pick the crud up

[Caryl]

This is true snowman :lol:

The advantage with the canisters (internal and external) is the built-in motor.

I often set up small tanks with UGFs but would not use them on tanks over 100L as I don't like the wider uplifts used, nor the noise from the bigger pumps and bubbles.

[Stretchhh]

Thanks people. I've pretty much decided to go with the built in undergravel filter arrangement. That way I can get the whole set up before Christmas, including some fish.

I've been reading those posts by kuhli loach and it's got me enthused thinking how many different fish are out there.

I'm going to go community fish definitely for starters and that means the valid points raised re the bigger fish, African cichlids, oscars and the like ... won't be an issue...for now.

Now what about gravel..that's another post i believe.

Thanks Guys.

Just as an aside. It was my darling daughter who put that stuff up there about me living on a planet other than our own...took me a day to notice it. I live in Franklin District, South of Auckland.