On Sep 21, 3:25 pm, Larry Blanchard wrote:
On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:25:35 -0600, John DeBoo wrote:
Years ago I had two of these and they worked well. What books I've read
(published 1995 to date) seem to say they are good inexpensive filters
to use. However, in my trips to WalMart, a local fish store, Petco &
PetsMart, they seem to have all disappeared - else I'm blind.

Are these little hummers still available? Thoughts & comments on them
welcome.

I don't like them, but if you insist get the reverse UGF. You're much
better off with an Aquaclear.

Undergravel filters can and do work well if they have sufficient flow
through them and to be honest the air line bubble type of flow is far
from being adequate. Stick an good Maxi jet or Mini Jet power head on
one and its good to go. IN saltweater setups they used to use a plenum
type affair which is similar to what a FW undergravel filter is, and
if it was provided with sufficient flow etc it too worked just fine.
However if it was not you had problems just oiek a FW under gravel
filter


The white bagged play sand sold ata home depot and that is typically
seen in cigarette ash trays outside commercial establishments works
great to mix in with and under fine gravel. Bout $3.50 a 50# bag.Its a
silica or actually a quartz based sand... I use a limestone sand sold
by Homedepot called Old Castle or southdown sand. Its the same sand
used by marine fish keeps. Its also about $3.50 a 50# bag, and its
perfect to use with mbunas or any of the malawi or rift lake fish.
This sand is uniform in size to what typical play or masonary sand is,
and is snow white in color but once in use it soon becomes a gran or
tan color. This sand is agreat buffer and it will not affect ph if
your ph is not too far out of wack normally. If its really on the low
or acid side it helps immensly.