Aquarium Filter Basics
Generally, how do filters work in an aquarium?
What are the best filters for a small freshwater aquarium?
What are the best filters for a large aquarium?
When you get into a larger system, specifically a tropical freshwater, what I like to do is instantly work in flexibility. The type of filtration that you can use on a large saltwater system also works really well for a large freshwater system. Typically what will happen is that if you do have a large freshwater, there is a decent chance that you are going to want to shift to saltwater someday. And I'm thinking ahead of the game saying "well why would you have to buy everything all over again" to accomplish that. 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. 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.
What is an 'under gravel filter' for an aquarium?
What is a 'hang-on mechanical filter' for an aquarium?
What is a 'BIO-wheel' for an aquarium?
A BIO-wheel is a modern version of a biological filter. It works like a wet dry but it's really compact. It's a small wheel that has a lot of pleats in it, and it's typically on one of the hang on waterfall filters. The water gets sucked up through the tube and goes to the filter stages, and then as the water is falling back out of the tank it strikes this BIO-wheel. The BIO-wheel is not totally submerged. It's spinning through the waterfall. If you can imagine a barrel with fins on it spinning in a waterfall, part of the time it's submerged but most of the time it's in the air. It's a wet dry filter, and bacteria need oxygen so all that air is hitting all the bacteria and it's working like a under gravel. It doesn't have the surface area that an under gravel does, so it's not quite as efficient, but it is a combination filter where you have got the water for mechanical aspect and the BIO-wheel biological aspect.
What is a 'canister filter' for an aquarium?
What is a 'wet or dry trickle filter' for an aquarium?
