Do I need Gravel??

[Harpy]

Can I use an under gravel filter..without the gravel? Can't I just use the filter without the under gravel plastic thingy??

I hate the gravel, makes it hard to get tank super clean...water always have a foggy ( I do weekly changes and full change every month) look even after full drain/refill.

Any options?

**Filter is Fluval 208 and will be adding second filter as soon as I can afford one. The tank is 75g with 50 filled.

 

[mark1]

really not much sense to an under gravel filter without gravel . gravel is the most important part ...... you could just use a canister filter and dump the water in a bucket of gravel suspended above the tank , better to use one of the more efficient media's . and let it dump in the tank through holes or a drain in the bottom of the bucket ....... you'll get pretty much the same affect .

 

[tglazie]

Unfortunately, Mark is right. The way undergravel filters work is by fostering aerobic bacteria, which settles on the surface area of the gravel. This is why gravel must be so deep over an undergravel filter, to maximize the amount of surface area. The greater the surface area, the more aerobic bacteria, the more ammonia the bacteria can process. Problem is that turtles create a lot of waste, and this necessitates either a serious filter that processes a lot of waste or near daily water changes. With a suboptimal filter, you can reduce this to weekly water changes. Me personally, I never use substrate in a turtle tank, choosing instead to use a homemade filter built around an Eco 396 submersible pump (here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018X2XT4/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20).

T.G.

 

[dmmj]

overall gravel is a bad idea for water turtle tanks. they like to eat it!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

In the fish hobby, undergravel filters are almost never used, but I had in the past used them in reverse.....a cannister filter inhaling through a foam prefilter and exiting through a pipe that flowed outward through an undergravel filter.
I used the biological filter bed, but it never got packed with debris this way.
The foam prefilter was easy to rinse off once a week.
Also, look into Aquatop cannister filters.
They look familiar because they are Chinese made knockoffs of a Fluval. But they are very quiet and long lasting.
I am currently using 6 of the Aquatop CF400 models with UV sterilizers and am very happy with them.
They were about $80 each on Ebay.
(Sun Sun is the same filter)