venzi

Hi. I filled my 20H tank with gravel and water. I looked underneath the tank and noticed there are several large bubbles below my UGF plate. Do I need to shake the bubbles loose or can I just leave them there and they wont cause any long term harm?

@Jmhowe09 I didn't think about the effort involved to replace the pump! Thank you 🙂 After thinking about it some more, I will not be attempting the Pump A (above the UGF plate placement). With a Pump B placement, the intake would be below the UGF plate so flow should not be an issue (or at least it'd be the same amount of flow as placing the pump at the top of the uplift tube).

Hi. So a common setup for UGFs and powerheads is to place the powerhead at the top of the uplift tube. This is obviously a quick and convenient setup. However, in my 20H tank, noise and aesthetics are a concern for me. Having the powerhead at the top of the uplift tube is not ideal for aesthetics nor noise. Also, it seems the slowest/smallest powerhead I could find are like 100gph and higher. But there are smaller pumps (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086G9M568/ref=emc_b_5_t?th=1) that can do like 50gph which would theoretically be quieter. So I was curious if anyone has tried to place the powerhead at the bottom instead (to conceal the powerhead more (perhaps even completely within the gravel) and maybe have some tubing or pipe stick out to the top. And maybe have like a 90 or 45 degree bend at the top of the tubing to agitate the water even better than having the water go straight up. As shown in the attached picture, I'm not sure the best way to setup the intake for the pumps. For Pump A, would it be ok to just place the intake flat on the UGF plate? For Pump B, would I drill a hole into the UGF plate for the intake nozzle or add some tubing/pipe that would somehow affix to the where the uplift tubes typically go (not sure how to affix it - maybe silicone caulking?). I guess in either situation, I'm trying to understand how much of a "seal" there needs to be be in the intake to ensure good enough flow is coming from below the UGF plate and not the surrounding gravel.

wow thank you @Brandon p

Oh cool @Brandon p. Yea I'd love to see how you have your UGF powerhead setup. What size aquarium are you running the UGF and power heads? What type of fish do you have in there?

So the tetra 10g air pump definitely has more power (or air output) compared to the nicrew nano pump. However, when I tried the nicrew pump on the same air stone, the bubbles were smaller and it created almost like a foaming effect, where the bubbles were starting to stack on each other at the surface. I didn't know about spraybars or adjustable air stones. Good to know. Thanks. 🙂 The 20H tank is not live yet. I'm new to the hobby and I learned a few things from owning a nano tank (lots of failures) and now I'm trying to set myself up for success w/ this 20H tank. At first, I was planning to use sponge filters (like 2 small ones for redundancy), but I think the UGF + power head combo makes so much more sense for me considering things like aesthetics (concealed look of the UGF), noise, cost, ease of maintenance and far greater filtering capacity (at least compared to the small sized sponge filter I was considering). And I just found out there's power heads that can create bubbles as well (then I wouldn't even have to worry about clogged air stones)

Hi @nabokovfan87, So I started out with a nano tank and when I tried an air stone in the nano tank, I noticed the bubbles popping at the surface would cause a significant spraying effect on the tank lid. So I figure if it's just turbulent water, then there'd be less of that. For my 20H tank, I'm using a glass lid so if I could avoid all that water spraying onto the lid, then that'd probably be good (to avoid excess algae or mineral buildup on the glass. But this is just my educated guess. Not sure if the air stone and bubbles would behave differently in the 20H tank. The other issue is the cost and noise of an air pump relative to either a wave maker or even a power head. I got the smallest tetra whisper 10g air pump and that is far too noisy for me, but pretty cheap (~$6). So I tried the Nicrew nano air pump (~$15) and that's definitely quieter, but it's more costly and I doubt I'm getting good aeration with it. So I'd have to buy at least 2 of the nicrew nano pumps. On a related note, I've been researching under gravel filters and I'm pretty sure I want to use an UGF with a power head. So if that's the case, then perhaps definitely the wave maker would be overkill for a 20H (regardless of the power of the wave maker).

Oh right. more oxygen is at the top 🙂 makes sense

Wow nice. I tried finding cow manure in home depot's website, but they only had expensive stuff. I did find earthworm composted manure for about $10. I'm guessing it'd work as well? https://www.homedepot.com/p/Earthworm-Castings-Plant-Food-35941624/303700486 I have a 20H tank as well. So I guess I'll use like an old t-shirt or sock and mix some composted manure and my garden soil together and see how it goes. Thank you @Pepere

Hi. I read you could use garden soil to introduce biodivesity into the water column. Has anyone tried this? Anyone know how much to add? Would it be better to grab the soil that's a few inches deeper into the earth or top soil is fine?

Hi. I have a 20H tank. Would it be too much current/water flow if I used a low powered wave maker to create turbulence at the top of the water column for platys or white cloud minnows or zebra danios? Would the fish be stressed out? Thanks.