stupid question. reverse under gravel filter

[dricc]

But that shouldn't be a surprise. Stupid questions are the only ones I ask. I am think of running a rugf.I was wondering could i use sintered glass(biohome) as part of my substrate? Using a thin layer of the biohome and then gravel on top? Tia

 

[mcarroll]

Not directly familair with the stuff, but the stuff floating would be my worry. Is the stuff at least as dense as aragonite?

If you're talking a reef, the substrate needs to endure quite a bit of flow.

@Paul B run's a reverse flow system and unless I'm recalling incorrectly, he recommends plain gravel.

For what it's worth... I also ran RFUGF back in the day on my planted tank and loved it. There's no real good reason for me not to run one now, I just never set one up in this system since it was set up as a Berlin style tank with just live rock, a little sand bed and a skimmer.

 

[Larry L]

Interesting idea, you would probably get some nitrifying bacteria in the Biohome, but maybe not much denitrification since you would have oxygenated water coming up through it and denitrifying bacteria need an anaerobic environment. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work, although if you have smaller size gravel on top of larger size Biohome, over time the gravel will sift down and the Biohome will end up on top. You would probably have to put something like fiberglass window screen between the layers to keep the gravel from sifting down.