I got rid of my four under gravel filters yesterday after about a year and I think there was 2 liter of poop under the plates…I strongly support those people who are against UGF infect if we say no to Goldfish bowls we should also SAY NO TO UNEDR GRAVEL FILTERS.
Thank you all
Love
Rafaqat

I ran an Undergravel filter (on my 45 g Hex) for about two months - along with a Penguin 170 Bio-wheel. Over time I became convinced (mostly from information I got off of this site) to switch over to a cannister filter in order to eliminate the UGF. I retained the Penguin to run along with the new cannister. Once the cannister had been running a couple of weeks I "took the plunge" - removed the fish into a 20g tub w/airstones and pulled out the UGF. Talk about NASTY. Even in such a small amount of time - with a regimented and disciplined routine for thorough vacuuming, there was still a lot of solid wastes trapped under that UGF. I am so glad I did that, and I am sure, so are the fish. Of course, they were mostly relieved just to get back into the tank and out of the tub - even if they only stayed there for 24 hrs for the tank to "settle back down".

ugf kill plants and there is no need for then really i dont think any way

I agree. I had a UGF with my first 5 gallon tank. When I was breaking down the tank, I removed the UGF tray, and all of the crap/waste/* got loose, and the water turned black. It was nasty, and I nearly puked trying to clean it. I can only imagine what my poor goldfish went through living with all that stuff at their proverbial feet.

AHHH! i have an UGF! i better go buy a diff one ASAP! thx you guys! dont want my fish to go through that!!

Not playing devil's advocate here, but I ran a UGF for 8 months and it kept my water absolutely perfect during that time. Params were always 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and about 5 nitrates. Mind you, I cleaned under the plate once a month by sticking a siphon down the uplift tube and sucking out the gunk from underneath, so when I removed it from my tank I had hardlyany mess at all floating around.
NB: if you have a UGF, you should be doing this as part of your tank-keeping routine.

And I know people say plants don't like UGF's... mine thrived! They do, if the gravel bed on the plate is deep enough. My vallis even put out babies on runners.

No, I have no problems with using a UGF - many fishkeepers still use them - and the only reason I changed to a power filter was because I fancied having less gravel at the bottom and more ornaments, purely aesthetic, in other words. The only real downside of a UGF that I can see, in fact, is that you can't change the filter media to achieve particular results, e.g. you can't add carbon if you want to clarify the water faster or peat if you want to change the pH.

I am with you Emma... UGFs provide a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow and guarantee that your substrate will not go anaerobic. In other words, they are unexpensive and work great. The big problem is that solids accumulate under the plates where it is hard to clean and out of the reach of the aquatic plants (that's why they are not recommended for aquascaping).

I like to use the gravel in my tank to clean the water, so I coupled the UGF with a pair of Aquaclear power filters and the water quality is excellent. The catch is the monthly cleaning under the plate which I can do very easily because I can see under the tank.

I have always used UFG's and i never cleaned under them or anything and i had very miminule gunk under them after cleaning it every year with the whole tank. I was told one time that if you keep the tank like a real habitate the bacteria will take care of the poop under the UFG, seems to work

The only thing I have to warn about them is. If the power goes out for a long time or gets unpluged for more than 24 hours you can run into some really bad problems. This had happened to me and I lost 2 fish at the same time cause of the junk under the plate.........I think with goldfish the UGF are a nono but with anyother kind of fish you can:)

isn't that annoying?!?! the same thing happened to me, and in the end it's really not even worth it at all!!!! .. siphon cleaners are much more ingenious!!!