Pets have been a part of many people’s lives ever since domestication became a normal thing. For one, most people consider pets an extension of their family. They can help many ways, depending on the animal of course. Some are used for grazing and food sources like bovine, chickens and others. Some, like dogs and cats, are actual companions for humans. Dogs were great as a company for hunting and gathering while cats were used for pest control. However, as we developed as a species, their roles and the kinds of animals we adopted as pets kept changing as well. Learn about this here.
Fish are one of those animals that are kept mainly for aesthetic purposes. Having an aquarium inside your home adds a bit of color and life. Most people would keep a few types of fish in their own aquarium mainly for these fish to become a living part of the house. They can’t be eaten since they are so small and some of them are also quite poisonous. Who wants to eat something as small as a goldfish anyway? They are displayed in aquariums for all to see and gawk at. Fish are a nice addition to almost any home and they are also great for children.
However, a problem for any fish owner is how do you even maintain an aquarium? You may have seen some and seen that most aquariums are made of glass. It is easier if it is just a single fishbowl and and you can just carry it almost anywhere. The problem begins when you have a bigger aquarium as they can be quite heavy and delicate.
Sure, a glass aquarium is made of reinforced glass and other materials but it doesn’t change the fact that it can break! Cleaning it is a complication most people don’t want to face and knowing the basics of aquarium filtration is absolutely vital. So you need to add a fixture that can help you.
As water is an essential part of any aquarium, it’s important to have something to filter the water every now and then. It might not be very obvious, but fish do excrete their waste. Without any kind of cleaning mechanism, this waste can circle around the aquarium and poison the fish. There are also other sources of dirt and pollution that can seriously affect your fish’s environment.
Taking all of it out and replacing the water can be a lot of work so you need to have a good filtration system to help you out. Read more about filtration systems on this website.
There are many ways that filtration can be done in an aquarium. Here are the basic three:
Natural or Biological
This is the most basic way you can do filtration in your own aquarium. Basically, you just need to have certain things that can absorb most of the dirt floating inside your aquarium. You probably have a lot of these in your own aquarium already so you’re well on your way to learning the basics of aquarium filtration. They can be artificial plants, those little shells or houses that you can put in and the stones that are on the “bed” of the aquarium.
Most of these can do a pretty good job in smaller aquariums but aren’t sufficient for bigger ones. This would be more apparent in a bigger aquarium, which is why most people would combine this with other methods.
Chemical
If you have seen survival shows, there are these “magic” tablets that can purify water in minutes, as explained in this article here: https://www.livestrong.com/article/169622-how-water-purification-tablets-work/.
The same principle is applied in the chemical filtration of an aquarium. You just need to have a chemical that can clean the water up and this would usually be enough to keep it clean for a few days, However, you might need to take the fish out because there are some chemicals that might actually be harmful to your fish.
Mechanical
This would be the one that would be recommended by most fish owners worldwide. It is a machine attached to the aquarium that will clean the water on its own. It acts as a cycling system, where the water passes through the device to be cleared of any debris and impurities. This is a very convenient option because you don’t have to clean it as often as with other methods.
However, these filtration systems can be quite loud, especially the bigger models. Nowadays, most manufacturers advertise these products as less noisy then they used to be, especially given their popularity. a quiet filtration system always helps, especially in places where silence is deemed particularly important.
I hope this post helps you with the basics of aquarium filtration!
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