General Information on Fish Tank Filters

A fish tank is a closed environment. This means that the conditions inside the tank should be properly monitored and the ideal settings should be maintained to ensure a healthy fish population. Clean water is one important factor to having this equilibrium. Changes such as fish deaths, uneaten fish food, fish waste, changes in water composition, dead plants, and the like will compromise the water quality.

Fish tank filters are necessary to make sure that the conditions needed for the fish to stay healthy and thrive are maintained. By providing mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration, these filters will remove pollutants and keep the water in your fish tank clean at all times.

Filter types: brief descriptions and the pros and cons

To have a complete filtration system, your tank should have mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration. You can choose to get three fish tank filters to perform each type of filtration or get one filter that supports all three.

Fish tank filters that perform only one filtration type are diatom and fluidized bed filters. Diatom filters provide the best mechanical filtration since it removes not only dirt particles but algae, bacteria, and parasites as well. They are not for continual use as they can clog quickly. Fluidized bed filters perform either chemical or biological filtration. When referred to as fluidized reactors, it means that it does chemical filtration. When referred to as fluidized filters, it often performs biological filtration. Whatever the type, it follows the same principle of using fine-grained sand or chemical media suspended in a column of water to filter out impurities. This, however, can deplete oxygen supply, and is therefore advised to use only in tanks with live plants.

Aside from being sufficient for small tanks, these filters can also be used in larger tanks but only as complementary or backup filters. Hang-on filters and internal power filters can support all filtration methods. However, their small media chambers, which translate to smaller surface area, means that they won’t be efficient in tanks with large populations. Diatom, sponge, and box or corner filters tend to easily clog up, requiring you to clean more often.

If you are looking for more powerful fish tank filters, you may want to consider buying canister filters, undergravel filters, wet/dry filters, and fluidized bed filters. The first three types can provide a complete three-step filtration system to your fish tank. While fluidized bed filters do not contain necessary mechanism for mechanical filtration, their biological and chemical filtration capabilities are good for tanks with live plants and heavy bio-loads.

While powerful and mostly complete, the above-mentioned filters also come with some disadvantages. Maintenance issues, such as periodic cleaning and replacement of parts, are the most common concerns with these types of filters. In the case of wet/dry filters, additional plumbing is one of the requirements.

Filter accessories

Other filters use filter bags and loose filter media. The bags have different mesh sizes corresponding to the size of the media to be placed inside. Examples of filter media are filter gravel, carbon pillows, and bio balls.

Clint Johnson is a fish breeder and an aquarium expert who likes to help others succeed in raising their fish as well. He is a featured member and guest speaker at many aquarium groups, as well as having a few very large tanks of his own. To learn more about fish tank filters and aquarium wet/dry filters, please go to marinedepot.com.

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