whats the deal with undergravel filters

UGF's work well, but can get a little dirty in time. However, RFUGF's work every bit as well as UGF's and keep clean. I ran mine for 18 months before its first cleaning and was surprised by how little gunk was trapped. See my tank specs below to see how it is set up.
 
As me is a n00b, how do you clean the UGF as it's...under the gravel...
 
UGF are good to draw waste down to the bottom of the tank to help keep the water clear ..

They can cause other problems like high levels of nitrate from to much backteria feeding in the UGF but water changes can keep it in check ..

I would look into using a power head filter that pumps twice the volume of your tank an hour .. and forget about the UGF you can take the power head out for cleaning and maintance a lot easyer with out destrying your tank.. or you could run boath ..
 
Nitrate levels in a FO tank are dependent only on the amount of food added to the tank and the upkeep of the tank and filter(s) by vacuuming and water partials and filter cleaning. The format of the filtration has little or nothing to do with it providing only that the filter(s) are sufficient for the tank. If you add x amount of food per week, you will get y amount of nitrate (and other waste) per week. UGs get a bad rap because folks do not know how to clean them or just do not do so. Any filter is a nitrate factory - that is whatt they are supposed to do after all - but only the hobbyist can get the waste out of the system.
 
A UGF with a Power Head seems to be more successful than a UGF with the standard bubble towers. This stands to reason since the bubble towers have no suction and would allow bits of rotting debris to fester beneath the filter plate.. as was clearly evident when I removed the one from my mother's 35g. A good Power Head will act like a vacuum sucking up everything through the canister filter.. or at the very least back into the tank where your clipon filter can suck up the debris. I still do not trust them. :p
 
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