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i have been keeping fish for roughly four years. At the begining of the year i upgraded to a 2.5 foot aquapro, the only problem is the filter that is built in hasn't been working that great, so i am thinking about changing to an undergravel filter. the tank holds roughly 125 litres. i do two 30 L water changes a week and clean out the filter every 3rd water change


any help would be a great .

sorry i am new at this

Undergravel filters are crap...

Take the filter you have now out if you can, or at least turn it off, and get a new power filter (AquaClears are good).

Why is your filter not working? Have you tried cleaning it?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I agree, undergravel filters are nothing compared to the other things on the market nowadays. I don't like them, and I don't recommend them to anyone.

Do you know why your filter isn't working well? Is it too noisy, or is the water output low? I find that removing a filter from its tank and giving it a thorough cleaning (making sure that the bacterial medium doesn't touch chlorinated water) usually improves the flow rate. Sometimes the impeller gets clogged up, or the sponge media is full of debris. That will make the filter run much more slowly than normal.

EDIT: And hey, welcome to Fish Profiles.

Last edited by sirbooks at 24-Sep-2005 21:03

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

yeah i cant take it out cause they have connected it to the hood, which is really annoying. i am going to take the hood off tommorow and clean it all out, hopefully that might help it a little bit, in the filter there are bio balls and lava rock,with a sponge as well.are external filters any good??????

External box filters that hang on the back of the tank are usually the most versatile and powerful filters available. With a wide variety of manufacturers and media options, they're often the filter you'll see the most. A suitably sized filter kept in good working order will keep your tank clean for years to come.

However, i'd see why your current filter isn't working up to snuff first, may be just something as simple as a piece of hair twirled around the impeller

thanks for all your help ill clean it out tommorow and let u know how it goes./:'

actually i wondered about the ideal of hooking up an OTB filter to an undergravel by some flexable tubing.

would provide more movement and alot more circulation.

if it works... remember I said it first ... as far as i know anyway

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

basically, the best biological filter is the undergravel filter. you can need to change your filter to a external canister filter. insert filter media like EHEIM substrate and EHEIM mech, add filter wool for good filtration.

You can do the eheim thing cheaply too, while in an ideal world i'd recommend an eheim 2222 professional rated to 150 litres which would do an unparralleled job of filtration you could get by with an internal eheim aquaball (three chambered)if your tank isnt too heavilty stocked, and buy an extra module to go on it. You can fill 2 of the chambers with efisubstrat and efimech and leave 2 with sponge, and the internal prefilter with the blue sponge and the results can be surprisingly good.The powerball head is easily powerful enough to maintain circulation in all four chambers. Comes in at less than a third of the price of a 2222 too!

On the undergravel thing- they suck, its harder to grow plants, cleaning underneath if it gets clogged is a total nightmare and often ends up with you needing to recycle, fish get under them and basically there are few visual clues if theres going to be clogging or a breakdown. Id go with an external canister whenever I could. The sheer surface area available to bacteria in almost any external will beat the undergravel hands down.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Oct-2005 03:17

Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Oct-2005 03:24

Franky, You can up the power to those filters, or install a cannister as others have suggested. They areally aren't much chop for a fully stocked tank.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett