Do i need an undergravel filter?

[morayeel]

I am currently contiplating materials i will need for my first salt water tank!! I plan to have a snowflake eel in the tank, should i use an undergravel filter? or should i go for somehting else? thanks for your time!

 

[mr . salty]

Anything else but an under gravel. They really are no longer the way to go. Depending on the size of your tank there are many choices. If your tank is small(55 or smaller)a good hang on the back will work.For larger tanks there are many canister filters on the market.And any size tank is best filtered by the use of a sump/refugium system. What ever your choise is,I would highly reccomend using a sand bed instead of crushed coral.The use of a good live sand bed and 1-2 lbs of live rock per gallon,will provide your tank with an ample ammount of bio filteration.Not to mention speeding up,or eliminating the cycle.

 

[tanker newbie]

i personally never had any experiance with an undergravel filter however i have heard that A LOT of people dont like them. what type of substrate do you plan on useing? cause if you plan on haveing live sand and u get the undergavel filter your going to run into problems, my only susjestion is that i would get a deep sand bed (about 4 inches should be good if not maybe a little more) and that should help cut down on nitrates after the tank is mature

 

[beth]

Take it from someone who knows...forget the ugf.
If you want to keep it simple [no under tank stuff] you can go with Deep Sand Bed [DBS] as described above, or a plenum. You will also want a good skimmer and powerheads.