I hate to barge in here...

The original question was:

I've also an Eheim 2213running on it and was wondering if it would be a good idea to remove the UGFplate and lift tubes or simply turn it off and leave it as it is.

I would think that turning it off and leaving it in might be a viable
option.

Doing so would make it easy to root feed that's for sure!

Regards,

Ed