What happens to debris?

soilmapper

I have been an off and on Aquarist for 30+ years and I have always had undergravel filters. I am now setting up my 55 gal once again and was looking at doing a back filter (I have a Whisper 3). My question is, with just a back filter, what happens to the debris? Do I have to siphon more often than I did with an UGF? I am not planning to have plants.

Romad

Hello and welcome to the forum. You shouldn't have to vacuum the gravel more than once a week during your weekly water changes. With a HOB filter, you just rinse the filter medium in the removed tank water bucket to get the gunk off of it and put it back in.

You don't want to rinse in tap water and kill off the beneficial bacteria.