Regular cleaning must be performed to maintain the cleanliness of your freshwater aquarium. Your aquarium can accumulate wastes over some period of time. These wastes can be left over foods, dead small fish, dried leaves and others that must be removed to avoid further decay and contamination. Manual cleaning is often practiced but there are techniques and methods which could make your cleaning process easier.
What is Filtration Method?
This is one method of cleaning the aquarium through using filtration media and has 3 types namely; biological, chemical and manual. These 3 types have its distinct procedures of filtering the dirt inside the aquarium.
Biological Filtration
This is the kind of filtration method which uses a special kind of bacteria to convert several substances that can go through with the water. These good serving bacteria will then break down toxic substances found in fish tank into less toxic ones. These harmful and toxic substances are ammonia and nitrites which can bring hazardous effects to living things inside the aquarium if they are not properly removed.
Chemical Filtration
Synthetic substances are mixed with the waste materials to easily flush them out together with the water. Activated carbon is commonly used in chemical filtration making it easily dissolved and flushed out through its filter.
Mechanical Filtration
This type of filtration method involves the use of filtration media to trap solid waste particles in the water. This can be manually done anything that can hold the waste materials can be used here. This is the least costly type of filter and can readily be available when needed. This kind of filter must be replaced in determined time interval.
The filtration process made easier through using filters. There are a number of filters which can be used in any filtration methods you may want to select.
Power Filters
They are the most common type of filters mainly because they are cheap and can be bought almost every local hobby shop you can find. Power filters are easy to install easy to use and maintain that is why many would like to use this filter for most of their filtration needs.
Canister Filters
This filter is not quite easy to maintain and use, though it has bigger cleaning advantage than any filters do. This is heavy duty type of filter exerting much force so that wastes can be flushed out faster. Canister filters are also more expensive thus many would not prefer to use this especially those budget conscious people.
Corner Filters
A corner filter provides the most basic filtration in an aquarium. These are one of the most familiar things a hobbyist acquires when starting to build his first freshwater aquarium set up.
Sponge Filters
This type of filters makes use of a sponge to filtrate organic wastes from your aquarium. Oftentimes they are considered simple, effective and cheap. This type of filter is ideal for water tanks that have small fish or fry as it can absorb almost anything.
Fluidized bed filters
This is a relatively new type of filter today that uses sand in the filtration process. This is highly efficient biological filter which make sand as the filter media. The sand will slowly moves the bacteria as it moves outside the filter.
It is important to know and search on this information about filtration method and the different types of filters so that it will be easier to clean the aquarium since proper filtration system handles maintaining the cleanliness inside your freshwater aquarium. Basically these information that has just been presented can give a more positive result in your freshwater aquarium keeping.
For more great information on freshwater aquarium filter.
Wilson is an aquarium enthusiast and loves to share his secrets on Freshwater Aquarium. For more great information on freshwater aquarium keeping, visit http://www.freshwateraquariumadvice.com.
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An aquarium filter plays an important role in keeping the fishes in your aquarium healthy. It helps to keep your aquarium water free from pollutants which can cause harmful effects to the health of your fishes. Unless you change the water everyday, an aquarium filter is essential in your aquarium. There are several types aquarium filters available in the market. Some of these fish tank filters are described below.
Canister filter
An aquarium canister filter combines mechanical, biological and chemical filtration. It is a unit which contains a filter chamber for filter media and an electric pump for circulating water. The water from the aquarium enters the canister filter, is pumped up through the filter media, and flows back to the aquarium. The filter chamber consists of several filter media such as sponges, carbon (charcoal) and ceramic medium.
There are external and internal aquarium canister filters available. An external aquarium canister filter has inlet and outlet pipes for water to flow from and to the aquarium. Whereas for the internal aquarium canister filter, it has slits for water to flow into the filter and an outlet from the pump. It is commonly placed on the floor beneath the aquarium or attached to the back of the aquarium glass. Aquarium canister filters have the capacity of filtering several hundred gallons of aquarium water per hour. The benefit of this type of aquarium filter is that its output can be adjusted to any part of the tank.
Undergravel filter
An aquarium undergravel filter is a plastic plate placed between the substrate and the aquarium base with uplift pipes. Water is being drawn down, passing through the substrate, and returned through the uplift pipes. The aquarium undergravel filter is considered as an excellent method for biological filtration. The benefit of this filter is that as the inlet is the whole aquarium base area, there is no way that wastes can escape from being processed. There is a large amount of filter medium available for bacterial colonization. The disadvantage of an aquarium undergravel filter is that when the system gets clogged, the cleaning task requires a major upheaval.
Undergravel filters are most suitable to be used in aquariums which do not have big rocks or decorations blocking large sections of the gravel bed. If such big rocks exist, the block plates would create dead spots on the filter. For udergravel filters, it is preferable to use regular gravel substrate as smaller substrates will tend to fall through and larger ones tend to hide huge amounts of debris.
Sponge filter
An aquarium sponge filter provides biological filtration. It consists of a perforated plastic tube fitted with a cylindrical sponge. The tube is attached to an air pump. It draws the aquarium water through the sponge, which acts as a medium for trapping bacteria. As a sponge filter does not have the tendency of having young fishes being sucked up into the filtration unit, it is suitable for use in aquariums with small fishes. Sponge filters are also good to be used in quarantine tanks where fishes are placed for treatment. This is because sponge filters have no chemical filtration which can affect the effectiveness of medications being used for treatment. As sponge filters only provide biological filtration, they are not suitable to be used in large tanks which have higher filtration requirements. This type of fish tank filter is mainly used in aquariums with low filtration needs.
Aquarium filters provides filtration which is essential in all aquariums in order to keep the clean for the fishes to live well. The above are some types filters used for aquarium filtration. These filters provide different level of filtration needs. You can consider using these filters based on the needs of your aquarium. Please visit Aquarium Filter website for more information.
Rose Mary enjoys travel and writes on various interest topics. Discover the essentials on keeping Betta Fish alive and Aquarium maintenance at http://www.fibcool.com/betta-fish/
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You need to take excellent care of some discus or if you are planning to keep discus fish. The discus may die if you mistreat them accidentally. In order to avoid future accidents, I will be giving you some basic tips on how to take care of discus fish, which can grow beautiful and colorful discus.
Many have a myth that taking care of discus is suitable only for the advanced fish keepers. There is no truth in it. The discus can be taken care easily even by a common man. The following are basic simple rules, which I will share few tips regarding discus fish care.
1. Aquarium Size: Because of their sizes discus fish should be kept in deep tanks. Since they size may increase up to 6 or 7 inches, and they continue to increase the size, they prefer to wide space for their survival. The discus fish can be kept in the empty tank provided if you add plants or bog wood to the tank. If they are frightened the discus feel safe place for hiding in plants or bog wood. They hurt themselves from dashing around in the tank. They get stressed very easily if they are kept in bare tank.
2. Aquarium Water: The best way to keep discus fish healthy by keeping the aquarium water clean and avoiding chlorine and heavy metals. We have to invest in water purifying unit to keep the discus aquarium tank clean. We have to make sure that water is filtered and movement of water should be minimal. The normal temperature should be between 82-86F.
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If you plan on keeping discus fish or already have some discus, you need to know how to take excellent care of them. If you mistreatment them by accident, you could possibly cause your discus to die. So, what I'm going to share with you are some basic discus fish care tips that will help you understand how to take care of your fish so that it'll grow into a beautiful, colorful discus.
First, I'd like to say that many people think that taking care of discus is only for advanced fish keepers. There's nothing that could be further from the truth. Actually, discus are easy to take care of. But only if you follow some basic rules, which I'm about to share with you.
The basic discus fish care tips are:
1. Aquarium Size. Discus fish need to be kept in deep tanks because of their size. Typically, they grow up to 6 or 7 inches. As they continue to grow, discus prefer to be in shoals of at least 6.
You can keep discus fish in tanks that are empty, but it's best if you add plants or bog wood to the tank. This will help your discus feel safe because they'll have somewhere to hide if they are frightened. If they are kept in bare tanks, they will get stressed easily and could possibly hurt themself from dashing around in the tank.
2. Aquarium Water. The next basic discus fish care tip is keeping the aquarium water clean and free of chlorine and heavy metals. To keep your discus aquarium tank clean, you may want to invest in a water purifying unit. Be sure that the aquarium water is slow moving and filtered. The temperature should be between 82-86F.
3. Fish Mates. If you are going to add other fish with your discus, you can add catfish, plecs, or small tetras from South America (neon tetras). Whichever fish mate you choose to add, make sure that your discus fish is the largest fish in the tank.
4. Feeding Discus Fish. The last basic discus fish care tip is feeding your discus. They can be fed most aquarium foods, such as frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Make sure you feed adult discus once a day and young discus fish three times a day.
These are the basic discus fish care tips. Follow these simple tips and you will raise your discus into beautiful, colorful fish.
For more information on how to care for your discus fish, visit http://www.Secrets-To-Discus-Fish.blogspot.com now
This information has helped dozens of people, like you, keep their discus healthy and disease free. So, to learn how to properly care for your fish, Click Here!
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