Removed Undergravel Filter!

[JayLloyd73]

I have been out of the hobby for some time, and decided to start up my tank again about a month and a half ago. I was under the old thinking that an undergravel filter was needed to keep nitrites down, so I put them in my 55 gallon tank when I set it up. My tank has been done cycling for about three weeks now. I found this site and started to find out that the undergravel is not needed to keep nitrates down. My tank has been at zero nitrites since cycling and the undergravel wasn't causing any problems other then the lift tubes were not pretty. I decided to remove the undergravel filter and lift tubes a couple day's ago and now I have a spike in my Nitrites, I did mix up the gravel alot doing this and probably lost alot of the bacteria there. My question is has anyone done this before (removing undergravel filter) and is it normal for the Nitrites to spike, and how long before they go back down?

[Malachi]

welcome back, it must have been some time as i have not seen and under gravel filter in a long time!

[Tangster]

Thats normal for a spike in NO3 after the plates where removed . Man U/G where state of the art in the 70's (: I ran them for yrs but we had to make them until about 73 or so when they where first started to me made by Perfecto and Nectionic's (:
If you had asked sooner I would have just suggested that you add the proper depth of top cover and just leave them .. They make a great grating for a Plenum system. The only short coming of a Plenum is that many never thought far enough a head to add a pit cock or to place a section of air line tubing under the grate. Like where one of your risers came up and that tubing under the plate allows one to draw off some bio sludge when needed every yr or so depending on the tank animal load and feeding habits. But what you are experiencing is pretty normal.. Just let it go and you may see a algae spike also might want to look in the a de-nitrator system ? I use a coil in a sump..

[JayLloyd73]

Thanks for the Info well ugf do keep nitrites down but like I said ugly. Anyway how does a plenum work, and how deep of a gravel bed should I have without the ugf. Lastly is there a way to diy with the coil denitrifier and if not how much is a cheap one and where can I find it.