Aquarium Filter Basics (Fishkeeping)
It's a biological system, again the heart of every system, and it's really efficient so you can use that for any type of system and especially works really, really well on bigger systems, whether it's a freshwater or saltwater. It is different than a mechanical filter, that is a pump that's pulling water out and cleaning it, then pushing it back in. An under-gravel filter is best used, or is most commonly used, in freshwater application and not with live plants because... Then, you can get away with just that although you're tank typically isn't as clear as you might like it to be. You can then augment that filtration with either a hang on the back or a canister filter that sits underneath the aquarium, and that... While that's a great sales point, it doesn't work in the long term for your fish because it really ignores the eco system basis of keeping your fish alive which is the biological aspect of the filtration system. The type of filtration that you can use on a large saltwater system also works really well for a large freshwater system. So what I'm going to do is take the tank, have it ordered with an overflow prefilter box built into it, and then go to the wet-dry system that I would also recommend for a saltwater tank. Most of the time it is totally skipping or really downplaying the biological aspect of the filtration and focusing on the make the water clear for the viewer filtration. Chemical filtration is typically either a hang-on filter, that hangs-on at the back of the tank. And if you got a good mechanical filter, it'll literary extract those components out and make your tank crystal clear. When you're talking about filtration in an aquarium there are three basic types in any type of system. A section in the wet-dry that houses carbon or some kind of mechanical absorption resin that specifically targets uric acids, copper, other heavy metals that while not deadly to a fish but most of the time can cause some concerns or some issues... It doesn't mean you can't use it for other systems, i. e. saltwater, it's just not super efficient and you can get away with not super efficient in freshwater. It's not a filter like you're thinking of, that water comes in and water gets pumped back out. Those bacteria convert toxic wastes, ammonia and nitrite, into nitrate which is not toxic or has a low toxicity to it. It's a biological filter. It is aerobic bacteria needs good rich oxygenated water to go through, either your gravel bed or your wet-dry triple filter where they live. When you're doing a small tropical freshwater aquarium, you want to start with the biological filtration. You're using a type of padding, or a type of floss or cotton to physically pull out particulates, whether its pieces of plant or excess food, anything in the water that will be a particle you could actually see with your naked eye. The number one method for me, in my opinion, is to use an under gravel filter and there are ways to make that function whether you are using a power head or an air pump. It's also one of the least expensive, biological filters you can get compared to the ones with saltwater....