Under gravel filter with sand??

[Hannens Ed]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and have already learnt so much from just browsing. My son is the proud owner of Ed. He is just a little thing that we found in a tub at the local market, not looking too pleased. So we brought him home to try and make his life more comfortable. My question is - as the topic says - can we use an under gravel filter with the sand or is that just silly. He has one of those corner filters but it looks yukky and we have a spare under gravel but I have never used it with sand before.

[kapo]

Welcome to the forum.

No, sand can't be used with undergravel filters. UG Filters aren't very good in themselves, with gravel or rocks, as you end up with waste building up beneath the plate, which in turn can cause water parameter problems. check out this thread: www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=48132

How long have you had Ed? Is the tank he's in cycled? http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

Check out following article on filters, it might help: www.caudata.org/cc/articles/filters.shtml

Also, if you don't already have one, try and find a turkey baster, its a great little cleaning tool for doing any spot cleaning of the tank, and saves having to drag out the siphon every day.

[Hannens Ed]

Thanks for that advice. We've only had Ed for about 3 weeks. He was quite scrawny when we got him but he's chubbing up a bit now. I think he's just young but don't know if he was underfed maybe. We are in the process of getting a canister filter. Cleaning has been easy so far because he is a genius axie. He tends to drop all his waste in the same spot, under a little tree. This may be perfectly normal and I'm all excited about nothing but I'd rather think Ed is the Einstein of axies.