aquarium filters
Having
a good aquarium filter will make the real difference between enjoying
fish-keeping or not. Here are descriptions with the different varieties
of aquarium filters available, what kind of tanks they may be great for,
as well as the overall benefits and drawbacks of each option.
Corner filters
These
small clear parcelled up filters provide an airstone that pushes water
up through layers of floss and charcoal. This area sits inside the
gravel in the corner with the tank. Sometimes they need to be weighted
down to you can keep them from floating. They're really cheap, however,
not terribly efficient. When they do atart exercising . aeration to some
tank, you're not going to tidy up a dirty tank with this type of
filter.
aquarium filters
Sponge filters
These are just like corner filter,
there is however no floss or charcoal or even a plastic box -- all
filtering is done by way of a sponge. Again, this isn't an extremely
efficient filter, nevertheless it does help. Sponge filters are utilized
in fry and quarantine tanks since they create no strong currents, plus
they do tidy up a tank a bit, plus they provide some aeration. Fry may
also enjoy nibbling algae off the sponge.
Undergravel filters
Undergravel
will be the best choice for a standard community tank. You can also
combine an undergravel filter having a exterior box filter for a few
extra clean water. The benefits are that undergravel filters are
relatively cheap, they do a great job once they are in place, and they
usually do not create strong currents that some fish, like bettas or
discus, won't like. These filters use biological and mechanical
filtration by pulling the dirty water in the tank down from the gravel.
The plastic aisles from the undergravel filter contain the gravel up
there is really a small space at the end of the tank. That's where the
majority of the debris is captured. The clean water is pushed up through
two tubes on each side of the back with the aquarium and pushes the
water that is clean out -- fairly gently -- through two window-shaped
grates.
Undergravel filters use your aquarium's gravel as the
filtration media. While there is mechanical filtration, most of the
action is going on via biological filtration inside the gravel. So these
filters might take a couple of days to inform you clean water. There's
also not a way to upgrade them aside from adding a powerhead, which is
only likely to increase the pull. You will also need an air mattress
pump to operate an undergravel filter. The stronger it's, the greater
filtration you'll get.
External/hang quietly filters
These
filters are boxes that most of their work just outside of the tank.
They wait along side it with an uptake tube which goes into the tank.
The dirty water is pulled up the intake tube and pushed via a group of
sponges in most cases a bag of activated carbon. This performs
biological, mechanical and chemical filtration. The clean water is
pushed out through a trough formation that spills to the tank.
These
types of filters do create a bit of current, especially if you enjoy a
large tank. They can handle tanks up to 100 gallons, and if you'd a more
substantial tank than that (lucky you) you can just give a second
filter. These kind of filters have to be cleaned about each week to 2
weeks by squeezing the sponges until all of the trapped particles are
freed. Sometimes small fish get caught or opened up by the intake tube,
however, this only happens with very, very small fish. That said, don't
use most of these filters in the fry tank. Otherwise, they are doing an
excellent job and are a very good filter for the money. They run about
$20 to get a 20 gallon tank. "Trickle" filters is similar technology.
Canister filters
Fundamental
essentials "big dogs" from the filter world. If you don't have a
community tank that's 50 gallons, employing a canister filter is a
little like swatting a fly using a cannonball. The benefit to canister
filters is because they do a very, excellent job and you don't need to
clean them more often than once a month in the event it.