Reverse flow UGF and Power Filter

Hello,

I've been full of newbie questions for the last month, haven't I? Hehe.

At some point I'm sure I'll know enough to give back a little.

Ok. In a previous post, Frank suggested using reverse flow powerheads for my UGF to push the funkiness to the surface so it can be easily vaccuumed instead of packed under the plates with the traditional UGF setup.

Well, shortly after I picked up 2 powerheads that you can set for reverse flow. I removed 2 out of the 4 risers, installed the powerheads and set them to the highest flow. The UGF is a Penn Plex for a 55 gallon tank that has 2 plates. My tank is a 72 bowfront. The UGF covers all except the bowed area at the front.

After Frank's suggestion, I took a flashlight inside my stand and could see all the funkola under the plates. It seemed like a lot considering all I had in the tank at the time were 6 Platies, and they'd only been in there for about a month.

The reverse flow powerheads did a nice job of removing almost all of the goo, and I had quite a lot of debris in the bucket when I changed out 18 gallons of water earlier today.

The powerheads are 'Aqua Clear 50'. Would a couple more powerheads help/hurt? Or possibly trying to pump the outlet of my Tetratec PF500 power filter into the UGF also, somehow splitting the flow to go to one of the holes on each plate? If it matters, the documentation for the powerheads state that the flow is 125gph in reverse flow.

Thanks, Gary

The material which builds up in the bottom of a tank is called fines, mostly made up of gravel dust which accumulates a slime coating. IMO it's harmless, ignored and you don't want to push it into your water column..

I don't think that you're in dire need of more power. Your flow rate is about x3.5. Generally you should not mix the pumps feeding a single system (UGF plate) as they will react unevenly to the back pressure. If you wanted to use the Pennplax, then you would need to separate the UGF plates so each pump powers its own section. You can use the same model of pump (ie: another AC50 powerhead) up to a certain extent (probably to around 360gph). Hagen recommends x4 to x5 for UGF operation, but that's a coarse guideline (depends on fish-load, depth/size of gravel, ancillary filters, RUGF etc) so you're comfortably in the ball-park (imo).

I see NetMax and I disagree on what accumulates under those UGF plates! One reverse flow power head per plate is more than enough. It's quite common to knoch the jointing ends of each plate and use one RF power head for both plates. If you consider the amount of food you have been feeding the 6 platies for the month they have been in the tank, eather uneaten food, or fish waste (same = organic pollution), had been being 'stored' within the gravel and under the plates, unseen. With the RF power heads, now it will be seen and removed. Now, your UG filter is no longer the sorce of organic pollution and you will really cut down on DOCs (dissolved organic compounds). This means the gravel bed is no longer a bed of pathogenic bacteria such as aermonas and pseudomonas bacteria - actually opportunistic heterotrophic bacteria (bacteria that breaks down solids), which means that if numbers are high enough, can and will turn their attention to the fish (any solids)! With high organic loaded water also comes ectoparasites such as flukes and protozoa - high organics depress fishs immune systems, consumes a *lot* of oxygen, inplicated in gill disease, raises TDS (total dissolved solids) which raises osmotic pressure, and makes the water a mucky yellow. The short of it - less dissolved pollutants and fewer health problems. By adding a HOT (hang on tank) biowheel filter, IMO, you can't buy a better filtering system! ............Frank

I'll leave well enough alone then. Thanks again for the reverse flow suggestion.

I picked up 3 little Corydroas Sterbai today and added them. Ammonia and Nitrites were both 0 this morning.

I also added 3 Java Ferns, one Anubia, and some kind of floating Hornworm stuff. I put some of that in little 2' clay pots and filled them with gravel. They look nice waving around in the current.

Looks like I have plenty of flow, so I'll just leave it alone if adding a couple more powerheads won't help any.

Thanks for the reply.

While Frank disagrees with me :o( I do think his idea of a bio-wheel powerfilter is a good one. Keep it mind for future expansion ;~).

A couple of notes on your additions. Hornwort is notorious for launching itself upwards but it does fine as a floating plant as well. I didn't hear any mention of quarantining those fish and plants. I hope you don't run into any problems because of it.

ps: Aww, come on Frank, 6 Platys for 4 weeks in a 72g. It's probably just gravel dust... for now ;~).

I hope I don't have any probs either. The plaece I got the stuff from deals in nothing but tropical aquarium items. They're very reputable around here.

I was thinking of picking up a 10 gallon tank for a quarantine tank. Gotta think of how to keep it cycled if I'm not going to be using it all the time. Maybe just try to seed it with filter media from my main tank whenever I want to use it.

Reputable stores try their best to sell you healthy fish, but fish with silent diseases still can slip through. For example, I bought a few fish to start my tank this winter from a store I've always liked. All were seemingly healthy, from healthy tanks. The SAE started gilling hard a couple days after I brought it home, and other fish got ich a few days later. My ram died from a lymphocystis infection that was silent for over two months after I bought him.

Seeding a quarantine with filter media from your main tank works really well - that's what I usually do if I have to sterilize it. At the moment, I have a betta in my quarantine keeping the filter cycled and will jar the betta with a clump of java moss if I need to use the tank.

'for now'

The Betta is a good idea. I like them, but didn't think it would be a good idea to add one to my community tank. Now I just have to find a good place for the 10 gallon tank.

Thanks,

And speaking of filters...

My power filter has 4 cartridges. The documentation recommends changing only 2 at a time, rotating the front 2 cartridges to the back, hten replacing the front ones.

Since this tank just cycled, how long should I wait to replace filter media?

And should I expect any ammonia spike due to removing some of my bacteria colony along with the cartridges that I replace?

Thanks,