The following is a question I was recently asked:-
I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about filtration. I have a tank but it came with all the bits and pieces fitted – even the fish. I sort of have never really gone out of my way to find out more about how freshwater fish tanks work, but I have to now because I want to get a bigger tank and do all the fitting myself. What kind of freshwater aquarium filter should I get?
I replied as follows:-
That’s an excellent question because without a doubt, filtration is the most important part of your aquarium. Your current aquarium is probably a biorb tank; they are the ones that come pre-fitted and will not take up much time in the way of maintenance. I must warn you though, that a regular freshwater aquarium will be much more taxing – fun, but you have to devote more time to it.
A freshwater aquarium filter is the cleaning mechanism of your tank. If you don’t have a filtration system, your fish will not live. A tank is an extremely limited environment and if it does not get a continuous cleaning, it will get contaminated pretty fast. A filter does the cleaning continuously while you only come in once every week or every fortnight to give the tank a wash and a change of water.
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There are 3 kinds of cleaning that take place:
Chemical:This will remove dissolved wastes from your water. These wastes will be in molecular form, and this kind of cleaning uses either carbon or protein skimming processes to catch it. Without chemical filtration, there will be a lot of hazardous molecules floating around in your tank and the fish in it will eventually be poisoned and either get ill or die.
Mechanical:This kind of filtration will remove floating debris from the water. A freshwater mechanical filter will catch fish food that wasn’t eaten, fish poop that didn’t dissolve, plant sheddings and any other bits and pieces that would otherwise just float around.
Biological:This is by far the most important step in filtration, but that’s not to say that a freshwater tank can survive without the top 2 – not for long anyway. It breaks down ammonia compounds that would otherwise poison your fish. Nature provides for this kind of filtration by distributing the necessary bacteria for breakdown where ammonia is present, and all that this kind of filtration requires is a sponge for the bacteria to attach. These are sold at the pet shop. You must never completely clean out the sponge because you will eliminate all the bacteria and then you have to give it time to re-attach before you can re-introduce your fish.
Fortunately, many freshwater aquarium filters in the market come with all three filtration methods contained, so you don’t have to worry about getting each separately. I don’t know how big a tank you plan on getting, but if it’s not too big an under-gravel freshwater aquarium filter would be a nice place to begin. You will get to see filtration at its plainest, and they are also not very demanding – all you have to do is vacuum. If you are getting a bigger tank, and it has live plants, go for an internal filter that does all the above 3 processes. All the best with your new fish tank!
