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Biological Filtration

Aquarium Biological filterBiotodoma Cupido

Biological Filtration Types and Techniques Explained
So what is the perfect biological filter?

 


Biological Filtration
This is the newly found and booming area of reef aquaria filtration. For over a decade now this has been the rage. The addition of live rock to salt water fish tanks may have been the greatest trend to ever hit the hobby.

Biofiltration or biological filtration is the part of the total filtration process causing the most heartache for newcomers to fish keeping, and which is too often ignored or forgotten by more experienced hobbyists - until something goes wrong.

I have been surprised at how little biological filtration is actually required in my planted aquaria. When I gradually decreased biological filtration by removing the packing media from the canister filters, the fish continued to do well.

Biological Filtration:
Biological filtration involves bacteria and other microorganisms (and to a lesser extent plants and some fungi) converting your fishes' waste into less toxic substances.

Biological Filtration
The growing of bacteria colonies on a media surface over which the water passes to remove nutrients form the water.

Biological Filtration. Ever since Stephen Spotte's landmark book, Fish and Invertebrate Culture, aquarists worldwide have recognized the importance of biological filtration in elimination of ammonium and nitrite ions.

Biological filtration
Biological filtration is the single most important filtering system you will need to maintain aquarium and fish care.

Biological Filtration - This is the most important filtration process for your aquarium.

Biological filtration: Is the most important, because it uses the bacteria to change harmful fish waste products, ammonia and nitrite, into a less dangerous compound, nitrate.

Biological filtration is the key filter in your system. The removal of ammonia from your puffer's water is of prime importance.

Biological Filtration - use of beneficial bacteria to break down products in the nitrogen cycle like NH3, NO2-, NO3-.

Chemical Filtration - use of chemical resins and carbon to absorb specific ions like NO3-, PO4-, colours, smells, etc.

Biological Filtration
Perhaps the most important function that gravel serves is to provide a home for beneficial bacteria. Those bacterial colonies are necessary to eliminate waste produced in the aquarium.

Biological Filtration: A loose term which describes the process of removing harmful compounds with bacteria. Actually, it is not filtration at all.

Biological Filtration: A method of natural filtration that uses bacteria to break down waste substances by means of the nitrogen cycle. These include undergravel filters, trickle filters, and sponge filters.

biological filtration
What we call biological filters are just housing - their main function is to maximize surface area for colonization by billions of helpful bacteria that do the actual filtering itself.

Biological Filtration-I am an advocate of the natural reef (Jaubert, or North American system).

Biological Filtration: - Unlike mechanical filtration process biological fitration involves bacteria and other microorganisms converting your fishe's waste into less toxic substances through a process call cycling.

Biological Filtration
Biological filters are a must for every aquarium. They stimulate the growth of nitrifying bacteria that breaks down harmful ammonia to less toxic chemicals such as nitrate.

Biological Filtration Biological purification of water is accomplished by various beneficial strains of bacteria.

Biological filtration Means of water filtration using bacteria, Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter, to reduce otherwise toxic ammonium-based compounds to safer substances such as nitrates.
Encyclopedia 1.0 by Rebecca Smallwood ...

Biological Filtration - This method of filtration uses bacteria to break down toxins in the water via the Nitrogen Cycle. Some examples of these are under gravel filters, trickle filters and sponge filters. Click here to read our filtration guide.

Biological Filtration: Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle in Aquariums
Ultraviolet Sterilizers: Improving Bacteria and Algae Control in Your Aquarium or Pond
Brown Algae: Causes and Solutions ...

The third is biological filtration. This is the most important type of filtration. Your tank may survive without physical or chemical filtration, but without biological filtration, your fish will suffocate in their own waste.

(1) a form of biological filtration
(2) a water gas exchange filter
The filter also does the duty of a chemical and mechanical filter. The latter two can be done by any type of power filter so they will not be an important issue here.

'cycle' (bacterial biological filtration s
by zach/hyper.esd.sgi.com (George Zachary) (Fri, 30 Jul 1993)
[BM] These are the fish I think I want, what do you pros think?
by jward/hydra.acs.uci.edu (John Ward) (15 Jul 92) ...

biological filtration These filters make use of bacteria to break down wastes in the water into substances which are less toxic to the inhabitants, in a process known as the nitrogen cycle.

Fish produce toxic wastes (ammonia) that must be broken down by bacteria through biological filtration. Most fish deaths for first-time tank owners are a direct result of not understanding the nitrogen cycle and are completely avoidable.

Filtration : You have to keep in mind that in tanks with very low pH (lower than 6.0) there is practically no biological filtration since there is a very small amount of ammonia.

The External Power Filter with a Bio Wheel is more difficult to obtain, but is highly recommended for its biological filtration.

Biological filtration decomposes the toxic ammonia that fish produce as waste products. All fish tanks MUST have biological filtration; biological filtration is the cheapest, most efficient and most stable way to breakdown toxic ammonia.

These are also an internal form of biological filtration. Water is pulled through a sponge and then pumped back into the water column. As the water flows through the sponge bacteria grows, as with the UGF.

This is achieved through mechanical filtration, chemical filtration (via carbon), and biological filtration (via bacteria growing on the filter media).

Live aquatic plants, as well as providing an additional biological filtration component that assists with nitrate management in the aquarium, provide an environment that resembles at least part of the wild habitat, ...

The canister filter, which had three separate containers for filter media, was loaded with a sponge, activated carbon, and bio-balls for biological filtration. The wet-dry trickle filter was loaded with bio-balls and a sponge filter.

Undergravel Filter: This filter provides both mechanical and biological filtration. It uses a few long, plastic tubes attached to a perforated plate on the bottom that is covered with gravel to pull water through the gravel.

In the last few decades, the hobby has seen many new types of biological filters invented which can vastly increase the capacity of the bacteria colony to provide biological filtration to your aquarium.

These fish will provide the initial ammonia to get the biological filter started (see Biological filtration above). This should take about thirty days to six weeks.
This can be stressful to the fish, especially if you add large numbers of fish.

The Eclipse Hexagon 5 is the only aquarium of its kind with total 3-stage filtration, including the unsurpassed biological filtration of the patented BIO wheel.

There are two things to be concerned with one is that the trickle filter can handle the size of aquarium in terms of biological filtration.

Aquarium water usually needs both mechanical and biological filtration to remove water borne solids (mechanical) and harmful dissolved toxins via the nitrogen cycle.
These toxins, if allowed to build up, lead to fish stress and death.

Unlike the marine aquarium that use a combination of mechanical, chemical and biological filtration, ...

Although not particular finicky about water conditions, this fish requires good water quality, so its tank should have a power filter and effective biological filtration.

Supposedly based upon reef tank filtration used in Germany, this method decreases the effectiveness of biological filtration by relying solely on the bacterial populations contained on and within the live rock.

An aquarium needs to build up a colony of bacteria that will help break down waste products your fish will create, providing biological filtration that isn't covered by the mechanical filtration system in your tank.

A fine filtration requires fine sand, foam, or Perlon; a biological filtration, sand, foam, cotton, or clay. Peat, active carbon, crushed oyster shells, or calcareous rocks are effective materials for exerting a chemical action.

Sponge Filter - A filter that provides a mechanical and biological filtration. The filter consists of a lift tube connected to a power head that draws water through a sponge block removing the waste particles and growing bacteria.

nitrate - Mildly toxic end product of biological filtration. Can be used as a gauge to tell when a partial water change is needed.
nitrite - Middle element of the biological cycle.

But overstocking results in excessive dissolved nutrients, which is not only directly harmful to corals, but also taxes the biological filtration capacity of the system and often leads to unsightly and unmanageable algae growth.

Let the chemical stand in the water for two or three days and then thoroughly clean the tank. After disinfection, the biological filtration should be restored, so the tank will be ready for the next sick fish.

Moderately soft slightly acidic water with a temperature range of 72 to 78° F is fine. Couple this with good mechanical and biological filtration and regular partial water changes and you'll have happy fish. Oh yes, don't forget the plants! ...

Contact time is also important when considering biological filtration. The more media the molecule comes into contact with, the better chance it will release its ammonia or nitrite to a population of bacteria.
Diatoms ...

See also: Filtration, Water, Fish, Aquarium, Filter