Guys

I have been hearing lot of debate on whether an Under Gravel filter should be used or not.
I currently have a 2 tanks, 36 inches X 15 inches X 18 inches and one more 48 inches X 18 inches X 24 inches.
Both of these tanks uses an Undergravel filter in addition to a top filter.

I would be getting a 6 feet tank soon and then I would then make the 3 feet one, primarily a frontosa tank and the remaining two would be exclusively for Oscars..

Offlate my experience with under gravel filter has been very bad, I have realised that they per say do not do any filtration, only allows a proper sedimentation of the waste below the undergravel filter plate.
If the maintenance schedule is missed by any chance then this plate turns into a nitrate factory and then it becomes a real horrifying experience.

Once while doing water change in my absence(I was out of station) one of my family members have not siphoned it properly and as a result the water became more dirty the entire nitrogen(ammonia) got dissolved into water and one of my baby oscars suffered ammonia burns and eventually died...

I am planning to get away with the UG filter and would use top filters/cannister filters, the substrate I use mainly is sandstones (river sand) or Quartz gravel (with 1 inch thickness)...

But I have also heard from UG supporters, that they contribute a lot towards keeping the water clean and UG is a very suitable place for beneficial bacterial growth...

Can anyone please help me out with this??

I know a few members use under gravel filters so I know this could be quite a heated debate if some of us start slacking off under gravel filters. I've never used one, so I cannot comment on any problems I may have had. however,I have read many posts regarding them over the years and I would say that most people would advise not using them. Oscars can produce some extremely large turds, sorry to put it so crudely these guys are one of the messiest fish I've ever come across.

I'm not convinced that underground filters are made to cope with such a large amounts of waste. You're best off installing powerful filters such as the external canister type filters that have pipes installed inside the tank, you can easily remove the end of these pipes so all the large waste goes up easily, rather than getting embedded under the gravel.

That's my opinion, big filters for big Fish, you rarely go wrong

If used properly under gravel filters can provide a huge area of biological filtration as the bacteria that feed on ammonia and nitrite build up in the gravel bed. However when used with Oscars you should always put a gravel tidy in the tank separating two layers of gravel so that the oscar cannot dig down to the plates. It is true that with normal u/g filtration there will be debris on the bottom that will require siphoning off now and again. However you can use ug filtration in reverse so that the water is pumped down the uplift tubes and is forced upwards through the gravel helping to keep the bottom clean. This means that the debris is pushed off the bottom of the tank and is suspended in the water where it can be removed via other means of filtration. It is possible to connect an external or internal filter up to the under gravel filter (see my article "an ideal Oscar set up) I think u/g's are great filters i can remember a time when the only filtration available was either a box filter or u/g filtration. My local fish shop has marine tanks that are still run on u/g filters and have used the same filter for years with absolutely no problems.If you have an undergravel filter that is not filtering the water then there is a problem somewhere with the way it is set up. I note that you say you use river sand i hope your not using sand as a substrate for a ug filter as this simply wont work. Sand compacts down and will not allow water to flow through the ug properly. When using ug you must use gravel.

oh imagein the pain getin out of bed to a dragd up filter tray every morning.
nasty:laugh:

I have set up 2 tanks with UGF's in reverse like in dingers thread. You get the output of a external filter to push the water down the UGF uplift tube. It works perfectly and i can recommend it

Glad to see someone else singing the praises of u/g filters glad its working for you