AQUARIUM CARE
Filteration (II)
Filteration is, without
doubt, fundamental to successful fish-keeping. Any consideration of the topic
of filters is complicated by the fact that there are almost as many types as
there are days in the year. In the case of the internal filters, the cheapest
are more or less the best. Having discusses about the maintenance-free
under-gravel filter last time, we shall focus on the commonest alternative
internal filter which is called the BOX FILTER.
All box filters operate
on the same principle, that of passing the water through a disposable medium of
one kind or another. Some of the common media used are filter-wool, carbon,
gravel, etc.
In the case of the
filter wool it must be appreciated that I am not referring to ordinary cotton
wool, which would, if used, result in heavy organic pollution, but to a special
non-organic material made from synthetic fibre. Of all the media, activated
charcoal is the best type, this would produce crystal clear water, although it
cannot neutralise the pH of hard water.
The different types of
the media could be arranged in layers inside the box, leaving a space above for
the solid wastes (drawn in by suction to settle).
The box could be
detached and removed from the aquarium and the filter medium renewed every
three months. This system undoubtedly relieves the aquarist of the need to
change the water inside his aquarium.
