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Why did the under gravel filter lose popularity?


Schuyler
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I had one for 15 years, and agree with what others said about the water being crystal clear. If I were using the right kind of gravel / substrate I'd definitely use one again. But I have all planted tanks, and found they do better with aqua-soil capped with sand, so I use canister filters. I use oversized Fluvals with lots of bio media, but with flow control, and have equally clear water compared to my UGF. 

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On 1/24/2023 at 8:56 PM, Sweet Fish O Mine said:

UGF never lost popularity on my tanks, I presently have 4 running. Two of them are over 50 years old! The first is a Halvin unit running in the original vintage 50 gallon stainless steel tank it was set up in, powered by the legendary Silent Giant air pump which is also 50+ years old. Back then UGF units didn't use air stones, just a line that metered the air into the uplift tube.

The second is a Metaframe "HIFI" 5 gallon unit that I got with my first tank as a kid... Which has recently been resealed and set up. Check out the intricate design that was put into the plate to channel the flow. They don't make 'em like they used to!  On this one I "updated"(?) the uplift tube in the 80's to the more modern stye which uses an air stone.

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'Metaframe "HIFI" 5 gallon unit that I got with my first tank as a kid' This was my first tank as well, it had belonged to my mother for several years. I just pulled mine out of storage and resealed it as well and im using it to breed snails for my Pea Puffers.  Sadly the plastic had become very brittle and as broken in several places.  I just got back into the hobby after a 15-20 year absence and am using HOBs because they are convenient, but back then all my tanks from that 5 up to my 29 had UGFs in them.  I very well may go back to them the next time i rescape a tank.

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On 1/26/2023 at 10:57 AM, neidzwiedz said:

'Metaframe "HIFI" 5 gallon unit that I got with my first tank as a kid' This was my first tank as well, it had belonged to my mother for several years. I just pulled mine out of storage and resealed it as well and im using it to breed snails for my Pea Puffers.  Sadly the plastic had become very brittle and as broken in several places.  I just got back into the hobby after a 15-20 year absence and am using HOBs because they are convenient, but back then all my tanks from that 5 up to my 29 had UGFs in them.  I very well may go back to them the next time i rescape a tank.

With some searching you should be able to find a new plate that will fit. It doesn't have to fully cover every mm of floor space, but if it covered most that would be nice.

Also, do you have the stainless steel top to go with it? I do! 

24 inch stand with 5 gal.jpeg

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On 1/26/2023 at 12:13 PM, Sweet Fish O Mine said:

With some searching you should be able to find a new plate that will fit. It doesn't have to fully cover every mm of floor space, but if it covered most that would be nice.

Also, do you have the stainless steel top to go with it? I do! 

24 inch stand with 5 gal.jpeg

The top is a heavy duty screen with a stainless rim to fit over the top and the light is also a separate piece. 

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  • 3 months later...

One 20gal tank with plants w/ 30 Blue Dream shrimp and 16 Glofish & 12 Black Tetras. Root tabs aren't a concern because the fish and shrimp poo and leftover food seem to be feeding the roots well. Jump started this one with biofilter goo (from my 17 year old 40 gal) and a spoon of pond scum.

Just received another 20gal with plans to heavily load with fish to see how many rooted plants it'll can sustain. I'm a fan of UGFs. Mimics nature a little more closely. Never cleaned my old 40 gal w/ pump driven UGF in 17 years of use... unless you count light stirring of the gravel as cleaning. I just want to get back to the old school 'low maintenance ' aquarium. 

On a side note, my son's little 5gal with UGF is running great. Guppies and Red Cherries are all spawning. 

1 vote for UGFs.

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That's all I had when I first started. Well, I did have some box filters. I guess we 'thought' we were moving on to bigger and better things. I've gone back to sponge filters and a couple box filters in my small tanks. I still have canister filters on the bigger ones and I HATE them. I keep waiting for them to die. I'll never do those again.

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At this stage in my hobby if I’m running an air driven filter it’s an Aquarium Co-op coarse sponge. It’s truly a better mousetrap. 


When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s I only had undergravel filters because they’re economical and my parents were footing the bill. I really wanted a power filter because it was a POWER filter and what kid doesn’t want something with more power 😁.  

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UGF work well when they work but over years they can get clogged as 'junk' gets trapped below the plates and there can be bacteria issues - i had one a long time ago but by the time i moved - 4 years later it was causing problems. I think they work better with coarser/large substrate than smaller fine substrate - but of course 90% of the fishes i keep want fine substrate so there is that conflict. I've seen something similar to UGF that is home made with drilled pvc lining the bottom of an aquarium - the guy who posted about it (it was on one of the monster forums for very large aquariums) said it worked quite efficient but i bailed on that idea - as one problem i have with larger aquariums is the work it takes to 'fix' a problem at the substrate level.

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On 5/3/2023 at 8:17 PM, Pepere said:

You can use a shop vac and adapt to the air lift tube after lowering the water level below the top of the airlift tube, and pulse the vac on and it will clean out below the plates.

I haven't tried the shop vac idea, but I do occasionally run the siphon hose down the tubes.

 

On 1/26/2023 at 12:13 PM, Sweet Fish O Mine said:

With some searching you should be able to find a new plate that will fit. It doesn't have to fully cover every mm of floor space, but if it covered most that would be nice.

Also, do you have the stainless steel top to go with it? I do! 

24 inch stand with 5 gal.jpeg

My brother and I had the 10 gallon version of that setup.  You could burn yourself on the light hood, but I would still like to have one in an LED version.

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On 1/23/2023 at 11:39 AM, Schuyler said:

My dad is was a big time aquarist a couple decades back. When we were talking he suggested an under gravel filter. I remember him having them in his tanks or at least I remember the big air outputs that I thought looked like toothbrushes.

They seem totally non-existent now. Any long time aquarists here know why they lost popularity?

Feels like a good idea. Gives tons of biofiltration and some aeration.

Well I think the production people didn't like the Idea that they couldn't 
sell all their other stuff cause the ugf didn't need anything, cause it was 
known for keeping tanks clean & nothing broke on it that had to be 
replaced & they sold the fact that their products were better & people 
fell for it & now the ugf isn't mentioned or used as much, BUT I have 1
in my 75 gal & when I get a 65 I'm putting 1 in it as well to keep it clean.

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Undergravel filters are good if you don't like the look, or place to hide a sponge filter.
They keep the view nice an clean. You just have the bubble towers in the corners.

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These days, I prefer sponge filters because I'm lazy.
I can move an extra sponge filter from one tank into a new tank and it's instantly cycled and ready to go.

You can do the same with hang-on-backs — just move them around when you need to.
HOBs are annoying though because eventually the little propeller makes noise. You have to keep futzing with them.

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