Undergravel Filter?

[bmorecopper]

I was thinking of putting an undergavel filter in an already established aquarium (44 pentagon) that has CC for a substrate. Would this be beneficial at all? Or should I save my money?

 

[nss11110]

if you use a reverse power head on the filter it might help. personally i dont like u/g filters.

 

[kris walker]

Hi,
If you have adequate aerobic (for ammonia/nitrite) biofiltration already, I would say leave it. If you need more though, and you don't want bioballs, biowheels, or LR, I would say get it. It will increase circulation bigtime through your CC, which will make it more conducive to inhabitation by aerobic bacteria.
Better yet though is probably a deep sand bed since you are thinking of upgrading your system. This has the added advantage of being able to process nitrates, which CC theoretically doesn't have the ability to do.
kris

 

[twoods71]

I am not a big fan of the old UG filters.
I once had one in a FW setup and when I took the tank down there was some serious sludge built up under the UGF. I dont think the stuff was to healthy for the system.
If it were me I would pass on the UGF and save the money.

 

[madd catt]

Undergravel filters can be ok to use if you use a reverse flow up instead of down,less sluge build up and you dont have to break the filter down to clean it.

 

[fshhub]

first, i personnally do not like ugf's, with good reason, not hearse or DOGMA, but personal encounters in 3 tanks i take care of(ours and a friends and now, 2 more at work, one which jsut lost the ugf)
and to add one to an existing tank, more than likely is asking for a problem, b/c if you disturb all the substrate now(which is somewhat settled) then you more than likely will be stirring up things and could cause a major spike or even another cycle(not good with fishes and inverts)
IMO, save the money, if you are having a problem, maybe addreessing it instead would be more help to you, if not, then : it ain't broke so don't fix it