Biologically seeding undergravel filter

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mditt8671

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Mar 25, 2013
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My GF's young daughter wants a small tank for Christmas at her house. I have an old vertical aquarium that will work nicely. It only has an undergravel filter though (which will be fine for the size of this project).

I have a well established 90 gallon aquarium with a canister filter. I'd like to start the ammonia cycle ASAP.

Two questions...

1. The substrate I currently have for the small aquarium is those little glass half-marble things. Will that work OK for establishing a bacteria colony, or should I go with regular gravel (or both)?

2. What's the best way to seed the undergravel filter (since there's no canisters or anything) using my established tank's filter media to make the cycling process go quickly?

Thanks!
 
There is no way to "seed" the undergravel filter itself. You'd have to rely on the beneficial bacteria that have grown on the substrate. The only other thing I could think of is if the UGF had canisters of bio media at the tips of the bubbler tubes, so the outlet bubbles and water are forced over bio media before the water exits back into the tank. That would be ugly and not all that effective though IMO. UGFs are not the best setup for any type of filtration, be it mechanical or bio. We all ran UGFs back in the 1970s and 80s... atleast I know I did!

What I would do, is grab bio media out of your established canister and place it in a box/bubbler filter for the new tank(see pic below), then maybe slowly transition the new tank over to a hang-on-back, better looking sponge bubbler filter or canister filter.

Air-Driven-Bio-font-b-Corner-b-font-font-b-Filter-b-font-Sponge-Fry-Shrimp.jpg
 
You can seed with anything that contains bacteria. assuming there's none on the current substrate, you can put in some established bacterial media from your canister filter and use that.. it can be taken out later, and using a filter bag would assist with this.

It will look ugly for a while, but it's possible. And bacteria will colonize virtually any surface, assuming it hasn't been treated with something to kill off bacteria.
 
I wouldn't use marbles. They're large and really do not offer the surface level required for a healthy colony for the bio-filter. Seeding is easy, just rinse out the canister filters media and put all that lovely mulm in. Put down a layer of gravel and then top them with the marbles to be decorative--but make sure that you can still get in to clean (unless running RUGF).

And...fwiw...UGF offer some of the BEST biological filtration out there. They require s bit more maintenance, but well kept UGF are better than a canister simply because there is SO much more surface area. Running it with reverse flow powerheads with pre-filters and it's easy to keep clean as well.
 
OrionGirl said:
And...fwiw...UGF offer some of the BEST biological filtration out there. They require s bit more maintenance, but well kept UGF are better than a canister simply because there is SO much more surface area. Running it with reverse flow powerheads with pre-filters and it's easy to keep clean as well.
Click to expand...

I guess everyone has different expectations in terms of "best". The way I see it, you can use bio media with more surface area in a canister and have control over flow across the media, where you cannot control flow as precisely with an UGF. Plus, how do you maintain an UGF besides trying to vac out the gunk through the lift tubes?

Not trying to derail the OPs thread here. Just trying to learn.
 
FreshyFresh said:
I guess everyone has different expectations in terms of "best". The way I see it, you can use bio media with more surface area in a canister and have control over flow across the media, where you cannot control flow as precisely with an UGF. Plus, how do you maintain an UGF besides trying to vac out the gunk through the lift tubes?

Not trying to derail the OPs thread here. Just trying to learn.
Click to expand...

Start a new thread if you want to get in more depth,

but biological filtration is as suimple as water flowing over a surface where bacteria can colonize.

'gunk' is mechanical... if it gets to the lift tubes, there are bigger problems, it should be vacuumed out with regular maintenance, or, as said above, if you reverse the flow of the ugf with a pre-filtered powerhead, the gunk is held in the water column vs. the gravel, and gets pulled into the pre filter that can be rinsed out the same way as any other mechanical media.


the amount of surface area is proportional to the type of material, including its porosity, and the amount of it... if your canister will hold more gravel than your tank, then you may be doing things wrong.. and I'm not too in favor of glass marbles but they can be very useful for giving fry hiding places.
 
I'm not required to use the glass marbles. I have gravel and the glass; I can use whatever works best. Sounds like the gravel will be the best bet...
 
Gravel would get my vote. Much more natural looking.
 
mditt8671 said:
Well this is for a 3 year old that likes Frozen, so... LOL...

But she's gonna get what works best regardless of looks.
Click to expand...
Probably gravel that's not too fine (Will not pass through the UGF) will be best

But really, relax, most anything will physically work for biologial filtration, the overall size will be determined by your biological load on the system and I expect you are not going to overload it.

My personal preference is for something natural, if you get coated gravel (For example pink, blue, neon etc) watch for the coating to chip off; that's a bad thing.

but otherwise, be sure that the stocking will work for the tank, it needs to be be big enough for their physical needs, testing the water will let you know that your biological filtration is enough and how frequently you will need to change the water.

Overall, it's good for the younger folks to get into the hobby, just be ready for her to want more tanks, with different inhabitants... My personal suggestion for interest would be a tank full of shrimp.


and be sure to ask any questions you might like, someone is sure to answer
 
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