I have a siphon with a bell on the end. I can't use a python because I
don't have any sinks anywhere near my tank (I live in a ridiculously
long, strangely laid-out apartment). It takes away most of the evil
gunk, and anything leftover gets sucked up by the filter, but there's
still that ammonia spike, today it jumped up to .5 after I cleaned the
gravel.

Right now I'm debating between adding an UGF (reverse or non) which
would help with the ammonia trapped in the gravel as well as enhancing
my bio filter (since the HOB's biofilters are rather pathetic) or
switching over to an AquaClear, which has better media for biobugs.
I'm thinking maybe if my bug culture was better, the ammonia spike
wouldn't be a big deal.

Right now Bob the Oranda seems stressed because of it. He still gets
excited and tries to eat my hand whenever I open the tank lid, but
lately he's been spending more time chilling out in the corners behind
his miniature greek ruins, or just sort of poking around the main part
of the tank, rather than his usual jackrabbit-on-speed antics. I think
I'm going to cut back on feeding and start doing 30% daily changes
until he perks up.


"Bill Stock" wrote in message ...
"Kellbot" wrote in message
om...
I currently have a little 10 gallon tank. Whenever I clean the gravel
it kicks up chemicals and evil gunk and sends my paramaters out of
whack... would a reverse UGF help with this by keeping things from
settling in the gravel? I really would like to keep the gravel. Would
a reverse UGF provide too much turbulence in a 10 gallon tank? Right
now I have a Top Fin 10 (Petsmart's cheap filter for 10 gallon tanks,
worst. filter. ever) and a bubble wall along the back.

Also, would adding a UGF help maintain my bio filter? one of the
biggest problems with the HOB I have now is that whenever you replace
the mechanical filter pad, it takes most of the biobugs with it. I
plan on picking up an aquaclear whenever I can afford it.

Thanks

Some people swear by RUGF, but my experience has not been great with
Goldfish. I had a 55 that suffered a PH crash a few months ago. So I
buffered (coral) the water and slowly removed the gravel for a thorough
cleaning. This helped, but Nitrates were still a constant battle (no
plants). I finally tore down the tank about a month ago when it got moved to
the basement. There was a lot of black gunk under the plates. I suspect some
of this was algae or gravel coating (epoxy), but it did have a nasty smell
to it.

The new tank has just enough gravel to cover the bottom and no plates. I
left the RUGF in the old tank, as it will be mostly plants and a few
tropicals.

What are you using to clean your gravel BTW? I use a Python and all the
'evil gunk' gets sucked down the drain.