Hey, I've been reading posts after posts, and many websites. I understand everything else excpt for one thing. FIltration unit. There chemical, biological, and mechanical filtration units. How do I make my tank have all 3. And if I have a undergravel filtration unit, how do i put it under my gravel. I'm just really confused, I read a website that gave some a lot of details, but that ended up confusing me more.
Confused on Filtration
- Thread starter DKiM128
- Start date
Ok, many filters have the 3 stage filtration. most cannister filters you can chose your media. Power filters like marineland penguins and emperors have 3 stage also. Mechanical-Picks up floating debris, or bigger things, Chemical-Removes harmful chemicals from the water, biological-something that the good bacteria can colonize on to break down nitrites,nitrates, and ammonia. In a powerfilter, like the penguins, the media is a pad attached to a plastic cage type thing holding the chemical media. Then the water passes under a bio-wheel that hte bacteria colonizes on, biological filtration. As for teh UGF, most people dont use then anymroe, but some still do. It is just a plate taht you put in the bottom of your tank. Then you put the gravel over it. A tube comes from the ugf and is attached to a powerhead. This sucks water through hte gravel to make bigger bacteria colonies. This is another form of biological filtration. It would be a lot easier if you had a good example of teh filters. SOme one probably nows a good website to explain it.
HTH
HTH
Most filters handle more than one aspect of filtration.
There are solids that will collect in the tank. Some of these are removed by the water change siphon, others are caught in filter sponges and various types of strainers (filter floss, etc). That's mechanical filtration. Mechanically removing stuff.
There are the family of nitrogen compounds that begin with the fish themselves but are toxic to them: ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Bacteria are cultivated in the tank that break these compounds down into ever less harmful forms. These bacteria live throughout the tank, but the conditions that favor them can be created in a variety of ways. That's biological filtration. Relying on biological processes to detoxify wastes.
Aside from the nitrogen compounds, there are other chemicals that are introduced into the water in a variety of ways. Siphoning out water where they're becoming concentrated and replacing it with clean water is a simple way to remove them in many cases. In other cases we sometimes choose to add some other chemical that will bind with the ones in the tank and help us export them by, for instance, holding them in a carbon pad. This is typically a more targeted type of filtration, used when needed.
Most filters can do all three. A canister or an HOB does mechanical and biological and can be set up to also do chemical. In a UGF, the gravel becomes a large biofilter and the siphon becomes critical for mechanically exporting solids. Biowheels are a type of return that tries to optimize conditions for bacteria. There are a bunch of other types as well.
Some folks will use different filters and try to tailor them to suit their needs or wants. I might decide that the plants are hoovering enough nitrogen out of my tank that I don't really need to push my canister to do a lot of biological work and set it up with more mechanical media, etc.
You'd generally want to install a UGF (Under Gravel Filter) before adding the gravel. Cart after horse.
HTH
There are solids that will collect in the tank. Some of these are removed by the water change siphon, others are caught in filter sponges and various types of strainers (filter floss, etc). That's mechanical filtration. Mechanically removing stuff.
There are the family of nitrogen compounds that begin with the fish themselves but are toxic to them: ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Bacteria are cultivated in the tank that break these compounds down into ever less harmful forms. These bacteria live throughout the tank, but the conditions that favor them can be created in a variety of ways. That's biological filtration. Relying on biological processes to detoxify wastes.
Aside from the nitrogen compounds, there are other chemicals that are introduced into the water in a variety of ways. Siphoning out water where they're becoming concentrated and replacing it with clean water is a simple way to remove them in many cases. In other cases we sometimes choose to add some other chemical that will bind with the ones in the tank and help us export them by, for instance, holding them in a carbon pad. This is typically a more targeted type of filtration, used when needed.
Most filters can do all three. A canister or an HOB does mechanical and biological and can be set up to also do chemical. In a UGF, the gravel becomes a large biofilter and the siphon becomes critical for mechanically exporting solids. Biowheels are a type of return that tries to optimize conditions for bacteria. There are a bunch of other types as well.
Some folks will use different filters and try to tailor them to suit their needs or wants. I might decide that the plants are hoovering enough nitrogen out of my tank that I don't really need to push my canister to do a lot of biological work and set it up with more mechanical media, etc.
You'd generally want to install a UGF (Under Gravel Filter) before adding the gravel. Cart after horse.
HTH
Lets say for filtration, I could buy a filtration unit that combines all 3? So then I won't have to buy all sepearte ones? Please list a couple for 10 gallon tank, 30 gallon and a 55 gallon tank. I want to each of them to have a filtration system, with live plants and such.
I guess you skipped over the part where I wrote
Pretty much any general use filter you come across will do the trick.
I like Aquaclear for an HOB, Eheims for a canister (I'd probably go Fluval if I was trying to save a buck). Others will differ.
There are different price points, quality levels, and applications. It sort of depends on what you want to do and what you want to spend.
HOB just stands for Hang On Back. Does bio and mechanical. Add a carbon pad if know of a reason you want to add one temporarily and you've got chemical (you don't really need chemical long term). Canister does both as well, can be outfitted for chemical.
Pretty much any general use filter you come across will do the trick.
I like Aquaclear for an HOB, Eheims for a canister (I'd probably go Fluval if I was trying to save a buck). Others will differ.
There are different price points, quality levels, and applications. It sort of depends on what you want to do and what you want to spend.
CArpguy is right about the fitlers. Most all coem with all 3 nowadays. UGF are an exception, they only do biological. I wouldnt use a UGF. If you want more choices of media you would want a cannister filter, such as and eheim, fluval, or rena filstar. All 3 of these make good filters. HOB filters are also know as power filters. SOme good powerfilters are marinelands emperor and 170. Different filters have have different gph. You awnt a turnover rate of 10-11 times an hour. SO for the ten gallon, you would want a filter taht has 100 gph ect.
HTH
HTH
From having read a lot of posts on Aquaria Central forums, here's my take. There are three kinds of filtration:
- Biological - This is the only one that really matters. You gotta have those good bacteria living on your filter (or wherever it is that they live) to counteract ammonia and nitrite.
- Mechanical - I think this means filtering out big hunks of garbage floating in your tank - though I'm not really sure whether big hunks of garbage are actually bad for fish. Seems more like a cosmetic problem.
- Chemical - This means filtering out chemicals in the water - like if you put in medicine that probably didn't help your fish anyway. In other words, the purpose of chemical filtration is to counteract the bad stuff that you put in the water yourself.
Summary - Only thing that matters is biological filtration. Shouldn't just about any well-established tank have enough good bacteria for this purpose? Am I missing something here?
- Biological - This is the only one that really matters. You gotta have those good bacteria living on your filter (or wherever it is that they live) to counteract ammonia and nitrite.
- Mechanical - I think this means filtering out big hunks of garbage floating in your tank - though I'm not really sure whether big hunks of garbage are actually bad for fish. Seems more like a cosmetic problem.
- Chemical - This means filtering out chemicals in the water - like if you put in medicine that probably didn't help your fish anyway. In other words, the purpose of chemical filtration is to counteract the bad stuff that you put in the water yourself.
Summary - Only thing that matters is biological filtration. Shouldn't just about any well-established tank have enough good bacteria for this purpose? Am I missing something here?
You MUST have the mechanical as well. All that fish poop, waste, ect. must be removed from the tank.
A 'well-established' tank will have the 'well-established' bacteria because of the mdeia / surface that it lives on... be it gravel, a bio-wheel, bioballs, plastic army men, filter floss.......
A good setup, with a proper bio filter(s) (whatever your choice(s) are) will be able to handle a sudden spike in your bio-load... be it from over feeding, dumping in more fish ect. Not having the proper area/size/ surface material ect. will make it harder for that bacteria to colonize and/or grow in size should the load increase...
Personally I have two penguin 330's with the bio-wheels and several bio-balls in the filters plus a UGF.... I also have some messy fish which make this necc.
I love my UGF... Of course I wouldn't run a UGF if I didn't vacumm it every single week... it is a crud storage device that has the potential to ruin your tank if it's not well maintained...