[mike bows] I would be honored to add another friend to my list as well! Please do add me. Thank you for the kind compliment!
Back in the 80's you could get pre-made under gravel filters for most common sizes of fish tanks, but none of them really "fit" the bottoms of the tanks except the common glass tanks. I started making my own out of a flourescent light diffuser called "egg crate" and fiberglass window screen material. They could be made to exactly fit any tank bottom, and could be made in sections so they could fit through the tops of the plexi tanks. I always left about an inch at the front and sides so the filters would not be visible from the outside of the tank (except at the back).
With my 100, a freshwater setup, I had just enough light, and a huge mat of java moss (great live plant), and perhaps 500gph of filtration flow - once every six months I had to do a 25% water change, and I'd clean the front and side gravel at that point. The water change was more to dilute the built-up salts from adding water than for any other reason. At it's height, the 100 had 20 clown loaches, a pair of telematochromus jacobfribergi, a huge plecostomus, a huge hong-kong eel, and Abraxxas the 2 foot long clown knife. Once a week it would also have about 100 feeder comets, but Abraxxas usually ate them all up within 2 or 3 days. Quite a bit of bio-load, but ballanced just right to work out well.
Many of the commercial filters now are very nice, some backfilters have bio-wheels, some setups even have affordable sand-filled modules and UV-sterilizing modules. But I've not yet seen an under-gravel filter (UGF) that can come close to a home-made UGF, and even the setups that are designed for reverse-flow (RFUGF) lose pressure and aren't as good as home-made RFUGF's. With an RFUGF, the water is mechanicly filtered with easily cleaned sponges or wool, then pumped down under the gravel. The water "boils" up out of the gravel bed, and that's where the bacterial action takes place. Add in a huge mat of plant, and some light, and that's really all you need.
I know what you mean about recall. I used to know more about fish than I can remember. It's bad enough i've forgotten many of the latin names, but they've gone and changed many of the cichlid names. Damn scientists!! :-)
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Date: 2004-07-31 03:44 pm (UTC)From:Back in the 80's you could get pre-made under gravel filters for most common sizes of fish tanks, but none of them really "fit" the bottoms of the tanks except the common glass tanks. I started making my own out of a flourescent light diffuser called "egg crate" and fiberglass window screen material. They could be made to exactly fit any tank bottom, and could be made in sections so they could fit through the tops of the plexi tanks. I always left about an inch at the front and sides so the filters would not be visible from the outside of the tank (except at the back).
With my 100, a freshwater setup, I had just enough light, and a huge mat of java moss (great live plant), and perhaps 500gph of filtration flow - once every six months I had to do a 25% water change, and I'd clean the front and side gravel at that point. The water change was more to dilute the built-up salts from adding water than for any other reason. At it's height, the 100 had 20 clown loaches, a pair of telematochromus jacobfribergi, a huge plecostomus, a huge hong-kong eel, and Abraxxas the 2 foot long clown knife. Once a week it would also have about 100 feeder comets, but Abraxxas usually ate them all up within 2 or 3 days. Quite a bit of bio-load, but ballanced just right to work out well.
Many of the commercial filters now are very nice, some backfilters have bio-wheels, some setups even have affordable sand-filled modules and UV-sterilizing modules. But I've not yet seen an under-gravel filter (UGF) that can come close to a home-made UGF, and even the setups that are designed for reverse-flow (RFUGF) lose pressure and aren't as good as home-made RFUGF's.
With an RFUGF, the water is mechanicly filtered with easily cleaned sponges or wool, then pumped down under the gravel. The water "boils" up out of the gravel bed, and that's where the bacterial action takes place. Add in a huge mat of plant, and some light, and that's really all you need.
I know what you mean about recall. I used to know more about fish than I can remember. It's bad enough i've forgotten many of the latin names, but they've gone and changed many of the cichlid names. Damn scientists!! :-)