Undergravel Filter

[panther1505]

Hello,
I've got at 42 gallon aquarium with an undergravel filter. It seemed like out of nowhere the bubbles from the 3 air supply tubes pretty much stopped coming out. Instead of bubbles coming completely out of the end with the charcoal in it, at the top of the tubes, bubbles only come out of maybe a corner of the charcoal filters at the tops of the tubes. And it seems as if the bubbles stop coming out completely for approximately a second or 2.
I've had my aquarium set up for a little more than a year now.

Do you think that the plates underneath my gravel could be clogged, causing this to happen?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[zazz]

are there airstones at the bottoms of the tubes?

 

[Mako]

Something has clogged the cartridges. This is the bane of the carbon cartridges. In my observation, they are gimmicky and useless-- carbon is only good as a chemical "sponge" and will clog very quickly if coming in direct contact with tank water with no prefilter sorting out the physical muck. Scrap the cartridges and use a good hang-on-back power filter. If you do so, or already have one, you can likely quit using the undergravel. Most hang-on-back filters are good enough in biofiltration to way outperform the undergravel.

 

[panther1505]

Yes, I do have air stones at the bottoms of my air supply tubes.
The cartridges can't be clogged, because I just replaced them last week. When I first got my aquarium going they bubble quite a bit. Bubbles came out all the way across the cartridges. But now they only come out at the corners of them.
The bubbles came out this poorly even immediately after I replaced the cartridges.

 

[RTR]

Airstones also need to be traded out for cleaning and/or replacement periodically. So do the filter pads in air pumps.

 

[panther1505]

RTR,
Filter pads in air pumps? I didn't know that air pumps had filter pads. So, I need to seperate the bottom from the cover of my air pump and locate the filter pads and replace them? Do you know if I can get them from my local fish store?
I did replace the air stones at the same time that I replaced the charcoal cartridges.
So, you don't think that the undergravel filter plates are clogged?
I've only had my aquarium up and running for a little more than 1 year.

 

[RTR]

Do you vacuum the UG routinely? If so, you should be fine. If not, you may be clogged.

Any store handling the air pump should have replacement filters, and replacement diaphram valves as well.

 

[panther1505]

I vaccuum the gravel routinely. Every so often I'll rinse the plants off.