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Aquarium Filtration Media

One of the most important pieces of equipment you need for your aquarium is the filter.
To choose what type of filter you need, you need to know that they are three types of filtration: Mechanical, Chemical and Biological, and these three types can occur in the same vessel or filter device, and it depends almost entirely on the type of filtration media being use in that filtration device. Here it would be appropriate to say that some filter devices are better suited for a specific filtration type, and can accommodate in a better way a specific sort of filtration media. To further understand the rest we should start by explaining the types of filtration, what they do and the filter media for each of the filtration types.

Mechanical Filtration

The first one is the mechanical filtration to eliminate the visible not dissolved particles of waste (leftover food, feces, debris, and general dirt from the aquarium) in the water.

Mechanical Filtration Media

  • Blue Bonded Filter Pads
  • Micron filter pads
  • Sponge

Chemical Filtration
It is needed to remove dissolved organic material. Pretty much the same material the mechanical filter targets, but at the molecular level. Removes invisible particles that the mechanical filter cant remove.

Chemical Filtration Media

  • Activated Carbon
  • Phosphate Removers
  • Resins
  • Zeolite

Biological Filtration/Biological Cycle
It is also called nitrification and it is performed by nitrobacters and nitrosomonas,
Nitrosomonas bacteria convert ammonia (NH3) which is poisonous to fish to nitrite (NO2) which is not so poisonous.
Nitrobacter bacteria convert nitrite (NO2) to nitrate (NO3) that can be tolerated in small quantities by fish.
This filtration occurs in the filter that contains the biological filter media, and they come in different shapes and forms for example plastic irregular shapes or porous balls.
The nitrate is eliminated through partial water changes or consumed by algae or plants

Biological Filtration Media

  • Ball-Style
  • Cell-Pore
  • Lava rock
  • String-Style
  • Zeolite




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