Under gravel filter

[surfmojoaqua]

Try to keep a long story short. Back in the hobby after 40 years and WOW to all the new filtration, etc. Huge learning curve for me. Setting up a reef and fish aquarium, LPS and softs mostly, staying away from SPS for now. I want a tank with gravel as I love the critters I can have in there and I like the look. My tank is acrylic, 10' long, 36 " high, and 20 " deep (apx 370 gallons) with a built in overflow. I used under gravel filtration back in the day before most of you were born. With the tank being 36 inches high it obviously makes my tank maintenance more difficult (hard to reach the bottom). I have the complete Apex system with Trident, ATO, sump, refugium, RODi, auto water changes, you name it I got it. In the research I have done, the two biggest reasons to NOT use an under gravel filter for salt water reef aquariums is because there is so much better filtration systems available now and because there is more maintenance by having to siphon clean the gravel bed because all the debris gets sucked into the bottom. Well, in my case, because I am definitely doing sand bottom tanks, I have to siphon anyway, so I am not sure what that difference is. A second reason that I have seen is that when you ask about under gravel filtration for salt water aquariums they assume that is all you will use. I am NOT going to skip the new filtration methods available as I mentioned above. Now, here is the biggest reason I am thinking of adding the under gravel filter: I will be placing a "false bottom" (for lack of a better term), say about 6" off the bottom of the tank. Then put the under gravel filter on top of that false bottom. This not only adds under gravel filtration to my system, but will also have the effect of lowering the height of my tank to 30" making it much easier for maintenance. If I have missed any other major reason NOT to use under gravel please let me know. I mean how could it be worse to pass oxygenated water through the media bed instead of just letting it sit there?

 

[Peace River]

Another possibility is to use your equipment and reconfigure it as a reverse under gravel filtration system.

@Paul B

 

[surfmojoaqua]

WOW - that sounds like a great solution. So in other words, instead of pumping the water back into the tank at the top like most people do, just pump the filtered water back into the tank through the under gravel system. The wave makers should created enough surface flow so as to not need to bring filtered water back into the tank at the top. Plus, with your suggestion, there should be enough flow back under the gravel to offset any build up under the gravel. I LIKE IT! - thanks and any other comments are welcomed.