Keeping the litter box clean

[biomekanic]

I've been watching a ton of the BRS TV videos as I'm getting back into the hobby after a long absence.

The analogy that the sand bed is a litter box is one that 1 find both hilarious, and apt. I was thinking about Paul B's setup, where he's been using an under gravel for ages. I was wondering if using a reverse under gravel would work to help keep down the litter box effects.

In case anyone's not aware, that's where water is pumped into the filter plate instead of pulled through. You place a mesh, for example window or screen door mesh on top of the plate to prevent sand from getting into it.

With water coming from underneath, would that help prevent settlement in the sand bed, making vacuuming more efficient.

Has anyone tried this?

Once I have space, and after I get my main tank set up, I was going to do a test tank to see how this works.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Reverse flow UGF’s where pretty much common practice back in the day when people started using power heads instead of air driven lifter tubes on their UGF, I have ran tanks both ways and personally still consider sand beds litter boxes these days I use just enough sand to cover bottom of my tanks only for esthetics.. just my 2 cents.

 

[Dan_P]

I've been watching a ton of the BRS TV videos as I'm getting back into the hobby after a long absence.

The analogy that the sand bed is a litter box is one that 1 find both hilarious, and apt. I was thinking about Paul B's setup, where he's been using an under gravel for ages. I was wondering if using a reverse under gravel would work to help keep down the litter box effects.

In case anyone's not aware, that's where water is pumped into the filter plate instead of pulled through. You place a mesh, for example window or screen door mesh on top of the plate to prevent sand from getting into it.

With water coming from underneath, would that help prevent settlement in the sand bed, making vacuuming more efficient.

Has anyone tried this?

Once I have space, and after I get my main tank set up, I was going to do a test tank to see how this works.

Questions that come to mind when thinking about how little we know about what Paul B is actually doing and how the reverse flow system is actually functioning.

How many gallons per hour does Paul B pump through how big of a surface area?
How porous is the substrate?
How is reverse flow different from bioballs?
How distributed is the reverse flow? Does most of the flow channel through only a fraction of the substrate?
How do you determine when the flow becomes choked by sediment?
How does the footprint of the rocks change the evenness of the flow?
What happens to the flow if the substrate is not perfectly level?

 

[dalebreton]

I have never tried such stuff before because I have an ordinary litter box from plastic with sand for my cat’s work. By the way, I have a large box which is also high-sided, because first of all my cat is a Siberian and he is huge, and secondly he loves to dig in the sand and bury everything so that all the sand in on the floor. I found out about this litter box when I read an article on https://thepethandbook.com/