Anyone using a UG filter?

[Paul B]

I am curious, Is there anyone else out there that uses a UG or Reverse UG filter besides me?
I also would like to know why you do or don't use one.
Don't just say because they are useless or nitrate factories.

 

[jhale]

I don't use one. The last time I used one was with crushed coral in 1987 with a 55 gallon tank. I don't use one now because, well, I never thought about using one. I thought skimmers had everything covered.

Paul what's the benefit to running one? What type of substrate can you use, and I know yours is a reverse flow, how does that help?

 

[noodleman]

i don't run one, well because i have a bare bottom

 

[OctaviousMonk]

I don't use one because I am newer to the aquarium world (2 years in) and from all the reading I have done it seemed to me the aquarium world had moved on to newer and better things and systems. I never stopped to think what the benefits might be, but not seeing them anywhere disuaded me from trying to find out.

 

[roncgizmo]

I haven't used one for a reef tank because I wanted to use a sand bed not CC
however I've used them on all my Fish Only tanks with great results.

 

[Paul B]

Noodleman, yes trying to put one in a BB would be a problem, or useless anyway.
Octavious, I am sure you have been reading that they are useless and very old technology and there are better options around. You would be correct too if you are talking about running a UG filter the way we ran them on fresh water in the fiftees and sixtees. Uf filters for salt water were advocated by Robert Straughn considered by many to be the Father of Salt Water fish keeping. The older people will remember him. At the beginning of this hobby there were few options other than hang on filters and UG filters. There was no sand for sale, only dolomite and a UG was state of the art.
That was in 1971. WE all used them and in a year or so we all had problems. They would clog causing hydrogen sulfide and we would lose all our fish and had to take everything apart to clean them. Thats why people don't use them anymore (except me). A UG "filter" should not be considered a filter. A filter needs to be cleaned and we don't want to take apart a tank to clean a $5.00 filter.
I think of them as a water treatment device that needs almost no maintenance.
I designed mine to work much better where I only have to clean it every 25 years.
I know that because thats how long it ran before I cleaned it the first time.
It must be run in reverse and very slow. It also needs a filter of some type on the inlet. To make it easier, I plumbed my three "uplift" tubes together and they enter the bottom of a plastic box just above the water. A pump (with a sponge filter on it) feeds water to the container. Each tube gets about 50 GPH of water which goes under the gravel. Slower would be been better.
When I lifted the plates the first time I noticed that the entire gravel bed was practically made out of tiny tube worms, great little filters. There was no clumping and no anerobic places. Don't get me wrong it was dirty. A properly run RUGF needs some detritus build up to process nitrate. I doubt it will process as much as a DSB but it will also last longer. There will be places between the gravel which gets very little oxygen, these places harbor anerobic bacteria to process nitrate. These areas are small and will not produce hydrogen sulfide.
You also need live rock and a skimmer as you do with any system.
I also like the fact that I can stir up the gravel anytime I like which I do occasionally with a diatom filter.
Anyway I don't want to talk anyone into using one of these, I just wanted to dispell the rumors about them. They have to be used correctly just as any device must be used.
Mine has been running continousely for 37 years with only two cleanings. I only lifted the plates once and that was to see what was growing under there.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Psycho graphic]

I remember my 1st SW tank, a 40 long with a reverse flow UG and Dolamite. It was a detritus trap. I abandoned the UG when I built my first W/D filter. Things have changed a lot have'nt they Paul?

My first reef was a 90, I think I might have been the first BB tank, I stacked my rock on eggcrate 1" of the bottom and had 3 PH's, one on each end and one larger on in the middle split to exit at 45 dgrees each.These were on random time intervals to keep detritus suspended in the water column where my DIY wavemaker would then take over to get it to the OFB. I also might haver had one of the 1st ATO's made, using a Microswitch attached to Rigid Airline Tubing with a fishing Bobber on the bottom. it worked like a champ.

 

[Sean]

used to use them "back in the day" stopped using them because food and such would get caught in the gravel bed and cause problems. I found that I would have to vacuum the gravel every month. I would only be able to clean 1/3 of the gravel every month so I didn't wipe out too much bacteria. I did have a good skimmer on the tank and about 100-150lbs of live rock in a 55 gallon tank. I couldn't keep the nitrates under control until I got some good advice to remove the UG filter. After removing the UG filter the nitrates came under control in about 3 or 4 months.

 

[Paul B]

Psycho, my first salt tank was a 40 gallon long also. It had dolomite and a UG filter with bleached dead coral skeletons. That dolomite and some of the dead coral is still in my tank.
I ran a regular UG filter like we all did and it was a pain cleaning the gravel. It would get filthy.
I also had a wet dry way before they became common, I think it was in the late seventees.
Here is that tank in about 1972 or so. You can see the coral skeletons and the blue devils which were breeding by the way.
Almost all of the stuff in that including the water and dolomite is still in my reef today. It was never broken down just transfered into a 100 long in about 1980 or so.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Sean]

paul this is so cool

It's also great that you don't advise it but let people know that it can be done.