piranhaking
New member
I thought i posted on this earlier, but it didnt work for some reason. I dont feel like giving the long post i did earlier, so ill sum it up.
the conventional ugf is a bed of crushed coral on top of a filter plate. CC tends to trap detritus. In that type of system the detritus is also pulled down under the plate where it sits and rots. The detritus should be vaccumed or skimmed out, or eaten by sand dwellers, and liquified so that it can be skimmed out. Sand dwellers tipically prefer smaller grained sand to CC, so they arent as prevelent as they are in sand. All of those things combined would cause the coventional ugf to be a detritus trap, which is in turn a nitrate factory.
If the system is set up to prevent detritus from being trapped in the substrate, then there shouldnt be a nitrate issue.
I think the reason that people make the generalization that ugf's are nitrate factorys is that the people that set up that type are often beginners, and those that sit up the better systems that dont trap detritus are smart enough to know why that assumption is made and over look the comment.
Just to make sure i dont come across wrong, i dont mean in any way that someone who sets up an ugf is a beginner or inexperienced/uneducated, im just saying often beginners use them in their simplest forms. as i described earlier. The systems i have read about in this thread seem to be set up so that the detritus isnt trapped, so nitrate shouldnt be an issue.
I dont claim to be an expert, and i know im not nearly as experienced as alot of the people posting here, i just think that people may have over looked one of the things that should really be considered in regard to answering the question of why people say that. I do think that the discussion that has came out of this, and im sure will continue to come out of this, is very interesting and educational.
just my $0.02
EDIT: i also wanted to add that the discussions of prefilterd reverse flow filters being the successful ones backs up the idea i stated, because in a reverse flow if the water is filtered before entering the bed, there is no detritus to be trapped, and if the flow is comming from the bottom up, any detritus that has settled into the bed should be pushed back up and onto the surface or into the watercolumn
the conventional ugf is a bed of crushed coral on top of a filter plate. CC tends to trap detritus. In that type of system the detritus is also pulled down under the plate where it sits and rots. The detritus should be vaccumed or skimmed out, or eaten by sand dwellers, and liquified so that it can be skimmed out. Sand dwellers tipically prefer smaller grained sand to CC, so they arent as prevelent as they are in sand. All of those things combined would cause the coventional ugf to be a detritus trap, which is in turn a nitrate factory.
If the system is set up to prevent detritus from being trapped in the substrate, then there shouldnt be a nitrate issue.
I think the reason that people make the generalization that ugf's are nitrate factorys is that the people that set up that type are often beginners, and those that sit up the better systems that dont trap detritus are smart enough to know why that assumption is made and over look the comment.
Just to make sure i dont come across wrong, i dont mean in any way that someone who sets up an ugf is a beginner or inexperienced/uneducated, im just saying often beginners use them in their simplest forms. as i described earlier. The systems i have read about in this thread seem to be set up so that the detritus isnt trapped, so nitrate shouldnt be an issue.
I dont claim to be an expert, and i know im not nearly as experienced as alot of the people posting here, i just think that people may have over looked one of the things that should really be considered in regard to answering the question of why people say that. I do think that the discussion that has came out of this, and im sure will continue to come out of this, is very interesting and educational.
just my $0.02
EDIT: i also wanted to add that the discussions of prefilterd reverse flow filters being the successful ones backs up the idea i stated, because in a reverse flow if the water is filtered before entering the bed, there is no detritus to be trapped, and if the flow is comming from the bottom up, any detritus that has settled into the bed should be pushed back up and onto the surface or into the watercolumn
