Aquarium Filters

1. Aquarium Filters Excellent water quality is very important for keeping fish healthy. Aquarium filters can help maintain excellent water in aquariums, but it's still essential to clean your aquarium and to change some of the water twice each week. Click here for more information about how to clean your aquarium, and click here for more about how to change water in your aquarium. No aquarium filter will eliminate these tasks. Click here to read the Aquarium Maintenance Schedule. Click here to listen to a Special Pet Fish Interview hosted by The Bailey Brothers about the proper equipment for a Saltwater Aquarium, including an aquarium filter. 2. Aquarium Water Filtration There are three steps to filtering water, and these three steps are usually called mechanical, chemical, and biological. 1. Primary treatment mechanically filters the water by removing chunks of waste and debris with screen, sponge, or floss types of material. 2. Secondary treatment chemically removes molecules such ammonia with materials such as activated carbon and zeolite. 3. Tertiary treatment biologically filters the water, and it is by far the most important type of filtration for maintaining excellent water quality in an aquarium. Tertiary water treatment is done by the "good" or beneficial bacteria that digest waste out of the water. 3. The Various Kinds of Filters Here are brief explanations of how various aquarium filters work. ● Box or Corner Filters are small plastic containers that hold filter floss and carbon and are connected to an air pump. ● Undergravel Filters (UGF) fit in the bottom of the aquarium under an inch or two of gravel and connect to an air pump or power head. Caution: never just turn off an UGF. ● Canister Filters such as the "Magnum" hang on the aquarium and have their own internal pump with a sealed container to trap waste materials from the water. ● Fluidized Bed Filters also hang on the aquarium and pump water up through a layer of fluidized material. We have used and tested all of these types of filters for many years, and we don't recommend any of them for your aquarium. Click here for an interesting article in another website about Undergravel Filters. Click here to go to a second article on the same website about how to remove an Undergravel Filter from an aquarium. 4. We Recommend BIO-Wheel Filters. A power filter hangs on the back of the aquarium and sucks water up from the bottom of the aquarium through a siphon tube and then lets the water drain back into the aquarium through a filter pad that may contain floss, carbon, zeolite, sponge, or other filtering materials. A BIO-Wheel is an important accessory that sits on top of the power filter. The BIO-Wheel is made of a special material that provides beneficial bacteria an ideal place to live. These beneficial bacteria do not cause diseases in fish, instead the beneficial bacteria digest waste materials from the water and greatly reduce the amount of waste in the water. Using bacteria to filter the water is called biological filtration, and is the most important factor in keeping fish healthy. A BIO-Wheel is the best place for beneficial bacteria to live. We recommend the following power filters: the Penguin Filters, the Emperor Filters, the AquaTech 20-40, and the AquaTech 30-60. The AquaTech filters are both sold without a BIO-Wheel, but an accessory BIO-Wheel can be bought separately from many pet stores and added to the AquaTech filters. The AquaTech 30-60 filter holds two BIO-Wheels. Click here for more information about BIO-Wheels. The Eclipse 1, 2, and 3 are Aquarium Hoods that contain both lighting and a built in power filter with a BIO-Wheel. The BIO-Wheel in the Eclipse Hoods is the best we've seen and receives our highest recommendation. The Eclipse is also a very good hood with no holes, so fish can't jump out of an aquarium with a properly fitted Eclipse Hood. The Galaxy Aquariums come with a hood that is very similar to the Eclipse's. Power filters with BIO-Wheels require regular maintenance that is explained in the directions that come with the filters. You'll need to change the power filter's pad at least once a month. You'll also need to clean the inside of the siphon tube with a test tube brush and the outside of the filter with a Scrubbing Pad. Click on here for more about Cleaning Warm Water Aquariums, or click here for more about Cleaning Cool Water Aquariums. 5. Sponge Filters are good for aquariums with baby fish. The sponge prevents the babies from being sucked into the filter, and baby fish can often be seen biting on the surface of the sponge, where tiny bits of food may grow. Important Tip: Baby fish can get trapped under a Sponge Filters, so it's best to be sure the sponge does not sit on the bottom of the aquarium. You can do this by using a cloths pin attached to the edge of the aquarium to lift the sponge filter by its airline.