Filtration
I use all AquaClear (AC) filters, as after a period of initial noisiness the impeller and well become sufficiently coated with biofilm* to run silently and well without reductions in performance, as long as care is taken with them and worn parts are replaced on the rare occasion the need arises. The design is simple, making them easier to repair thanks to fewer moving parts. Extra pipes are easily added so the filter pulls water from the deepest parts of the tank where nitrates can otherwise settle. They are, however, not self-starting, requiring a cup or two of tank water to be poured into the body before plugging them in. I've tried several other filter brands and keep those on hand as spares - with seasoned media stored where it will retain its population of beneficial bacteria - but always end up coming back to the ACs as my filters of choice.
I run multiple filters per tank, an AC20 and AC30 on the twenty-gallon long (20G-L), and two AC30s and an AC50 on the fifty-five-gallon long (55G-L). The power consumption of these filters is minimal (again, simple design, few moving parts) and should any one of them stop functioning for reasons beyond power outage - more on that in a later post - the others are more than capable of providing sufficient water movement and aeration to maintain the well-being of the tanks' inhabitants, even the demure AC20. Short of a catastrophic failure of several ACs at once I'll probably never need the other filters I keep around, but it's always good to be prepared, as the Boy Scouts among us would say.
This arrangement also allows for the flow in the tank to be distributed throughout, so gas exchanges take place across the entire surface and nutrients are evenly-dispersed through the water column and substrate. It also creates zones of slow (but not no-)flow and zones where the flow is quick to accommodate different plants, fish, and invertebrates. Filters are placed across the back of the tank - left, right, and on the 55G-L, center - with intake pipes reaching to at least the middle and at least one per tank to the bottom. I also run bubblers or bubble bars in all my aquatic or semi-aquatic environments except the slug/fence lizard paludarium, as this offers surface agitation and movement of the water column sufficient to allow for good gas exchange even if all the filters on a tank should go out.
Filter media and pipes are rinsed in tank water daily or every other day. They can go longer without suffering a worrisome decline in efficacy, but I prefer a heavy flow, especially in the 20G-L, which houses among other things bamboo shrimp that come from fast-flowing creeks in Asia. The impeller wells are cleaned when filter performance indicates a need for it through noise, reduced flow, or failure of the impeller to start without prompting upon plugin. Filters are unplugged while the prefilter and pipes are cleaned and turned back on before the media basket is removed.
In the media basket I run two layers of Fluval filter foam topped with a bag of their Bio-beads. I could probably use eggshells for that final step as they too would provide huge amounts of surface area for beneficial bacteria, but the Bio-beads (ceramic) come with the filters and will last for years before they need replacing. Maybe I'll try eggshells when that time comes. Foam blocks are changed when one breaks down too much to hold it's shape well in the filter and are then stored with other seasoned media for emergency use.
As important as simple movement of the water is, the beneficial bacteria that inhabit the filter media play a critical role in maintaining a healthy chemical balance in the water, so only one piece of media from one filter per tank is changed at any given time. These organisms inhabit every surface in and involved with the water flow of the tank, but are most prolific in the filter media and some kinds of substrates; one of the things I like about sand is that it offers a very good amount of surface area for nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to colonize.
I do keep the charcoal bags that also come with the filters in case I should ever have need to medicate a tank or have some heavy metal or other chemical catastrophe, but it's best not used in the long-term and in any case quickly loses its ability to adsorb contaminants while at the same time it doesn't offer a tremendous amount of surface area. As clean, fresh water is the single-best first line of defense against fish disease and pathogens and several readily-available 'home remedies' have served the purpose with less risk when water changes weren't an aggressive enough approach, medication and therefore charcoal are almost never necessary (have not been at all in our recent experience, knock on Grandma's antique desk, although many years ago I spent quite a lot of money on fish meds).
So after the pipes have been rinsed and prefilters have been squeezed out, I plug in the filters and ensure they're running without issues, and clean the impeller wells if they don't start on their own. The media baskets are then removed to the same rinse water in the same bucket as the one in which the pipes and pre-filters were cleaned. Bio-bead bags are swished through the water until the mud's washed off, and the foam blocks squeezed out as were the prefilters. In the course of this, some of the mulm** that settles by design into the bottom of the AC's main body will flow out into the aquarium's water column to be eagerly consumed by its inhabitants.
If the filter body has too great a buildup of mulm or it doesn't get washed out on its own I'll use a turkey baster to squirt it out of the bottom. Media is then replaced in the filter baskets, and baskets replaced in the filters, and we're good to go. Doing this on a regular basis ensures that when I do need to leave the filters for a few days they'll be at their cleanest and I won't have to worry that they'll clog before I can get back to them. I don't actually have to worry a lot about this anyway, but more about that in that upcoming post on power outages.
The last step of filter cleaning leads to what will be another entry about feeding. I start the cleaning process with about two inches of water in the bottom of an ice cream bucket. By the time I'm done there will be one-half to a full gallon of water and mulm in the bucket. I then run the water, mud, and debris through a fine-mesh net, swishing it in the water and tapping the bottom of the net until the mud is rinsed out and what's left is detritus, algae, worms and other detritus- and algae-eating organisms, and any tiny shrimp or snails that were on the prefilters or filter media.
This matter is added back into the tank. Done properly, it gives another good dose of food that floats long enough for slow swimmers (such as the fantail goldfish) to get plenty, but doesn't cloud or pollute the water with the kind of very fine particulates that can irritate fish gills and clog filters faster. In a short but not too short period of time this debris settles out into the sand bed where again it seeds the substrate with the sort of organisms that help it do it's job as well as feeding the shrimp, snails, and bottom-feeding fish.
I final-filter twice, then let the resultant brown water settle for a few minutes until there's a layer of mud at the bottom. Once it's settled, I water any plants that need it, pour the remaining water through the worm composter, and add the mud to my live food buckets and duckweed bins. Nothing goes to waste, and nothing is added back into the creek where any stray MTS (Malaysian trumpet snails) could cause issues of displacement for our native Physa snails.
That's my filtration routine, and these are our goldfish. Enjoy, and may all your places be happy ones:
* The biofilm coating on the impeller is my assumption as in my tanks it happens on its own within a couple of weeks with no other explanation. Cleaning the impeller well may make them noisy again for a few minutes - usually doesn't - but it resolves much more quickly in those cases. Some use silicone grease to lubricate them and say that stops the noise instantly and often permanently, but in any case reports are nearly universal that they do (I say 'nearly' because while I haven't seen reports to the contrary they may exist), after a noisy week or two, stop rattling and run silently except for the flow of water. The rattle they do make at the beginning, again almost universally (and I say 'almost' because I have seen reports from people for whom they ran silently from the beginning), is relieved to a reasonable degree by removing the lid and ensuring that the filter is level, made easy where needed by the included levelers.
** Mulm consists of decaying organic matter (DOM), microalgae, and detritus-eating worms and other organisms, all held together in clumps by biofilm. The fish will take up the large bits, consume the parts they find tasty, and spit out the rest which then gets sucked to the prefilter or settles to the sand bed and either contributes to the substrate's small-organism population or is eaten by bottom-feeders, shrimp, snails, and/or plants.
I run multiple filters per tank, an AC20 and AC30 on the twenty-gallon long (20G-L), and two AC30s and an AC50 on the fifty-five-gallon long (55G-L). The power consumption of these filters is minimal (again, simple design, few moving parts) and should any one of them stop functioning for reasons beyond power outage - more on that in a later post - the others are more than capable of providing sufficient water movement and aeration to maintain the well-being of the tanks' inhabitants, even the demure AC20. Short of a catastrophic failure of several ACs at once I'll probably never need the other filters I keep around, but it's always good to be prepared, as the Boy Scouts among us would say.
This arrangement also allows for the flow in the tank to be distributed throughout, so gas exchanges take place across the entire surface and nutrients are evenly-dispersed through the water column and substrate. It also creates zones of slow (but not no-)flow and zones where the flow is quick to accommodate different plants, fish, and invertebrates. Filters are placed across the back of the tank - left, right, and on the 55G-L, center - with intake pipes reaching to at least the middle and at least one per tank to the bottom. I also run bubblers or bubble bars in all my aquatic or semi-aquatic environments except the slug/fence lizard paludarium, as this offers surface agitation and movement of the water column sufficient to allow for good gas exchange even if all the filters on a tank should go out.
Filter media and pipes are rinsed in tank water daily or every other day. They can go longer without suffering a worrisome decline in efficacy, but I prefer a heavy flow, especially in the 20G-L, which houses among other things bamboo shrimp that come from fast-flowing creeks in Asia. The impeller wells are cleaned when filter performance indicates a need for it through noise, reduced flow, or failure of the impeller to start without prompting upon plugin. Filters are unplugged while the prefilter and pipes are cleaned and turned back on before the media basket is removed.
In the media basket I run two layers of Fluval filter foam topped with a bag of their Bio-beads. I could probably use eggshells for that final step as they too would provide huge amounts of surface area for beneficial bacteria, but the Bio-beads (ceramic) come with the filters and will last for years before they need replacing. Maybe I'll try eggshells when that time comes. Foam blocks are changed when one breaks down too much to hold it's shape well in the filter and are then stored with other seasoned media for emergency use.
As important as simple movement of the water is, the beneficial bacteria that inhabit the filter media play a critical role in maintaining a healthy chemical balance in the water, so only one piece of media from one filter per tank is changed at any given time. These organisms inhabit every surface in and involved with the water flow of the tank, but are most prolific in the filter media and some kinds of substrates; one of the things I like about sand is that it offers a very good amount of surface area for nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to colonize.
I do keep the charcoal bags that also come with the filters in case I should ever have need to medicate a tank or have some heavy metal or other chemical catastrophe, but it's best not used in the long-term and in any case quickly loses its ability to adsorb contaminants while at the same time it doesn't offer a tremendous amount of surface area. As clean, fresh water is the single-best first line of defense against fish disease and pathogens and several readily-available 'home remedies' have served the purpose with less risk when water changes weren't an aggressive enough approach, medication and therefore charcoal are almost never necessary (have not been at all in our recent experience, knock on Grandma's antique desk, although many years ago I spent quite a lot of money on fish meds).
So after the pipes have been rinsed and prefilters have been squeezed out, I plug in the filters and ensure they're running without issues, and clean the impeller wells if they don't start on their own. The media baskets are then removed to the same rinse water in the same bucket as the one in which the pipes and pre-filters were cleaned. Bio-bead bags are swished through the water until the mud's washed off, and the foam blocks squeezed out as were the prefilters. In the course of this, some of the mulm** that settles by design into the bottom of the AC's main body will flow out into the aquarium's water column to be eagerly consumed by its inhabitants.
If the filter body has too great a buildup of mulm or it doesn't get washed out on its own I'll use a turkey baster to squirt it out of the bottom. Media is then replaced in the filter baskets, and baskets replaced in the filters, and we're good to go. Doing this on a regular basis ensures that when I do need to leave the filters for a few days they'll be at their cleanest and I won't have to worry that they'll clog before I can get back to them. I don't actually have to worry a lot about this anyway, but more about that in that upcoming post on power outages.
The last step of filter cleaning leads to what will be another entry about feeding. I start the cleaning process with about two inches of water in the bottom of an ice cream bucket. By the time I'm done there will be one-half to a full gallon of water and mulm in the bucket. I then run the water, mud, and debris through a fine-mesh net, swishing it in the water and tapping the bottom of the net until the mud is rinsed out and what's left is detritus, algae, worms and other detritus- and algae-eating organisms, and any tiny shrimp or snails that were on the prefilters or filter media.
This matter is added back into the tank. Done properly, it gives another good dose of food that floats long enough for slow swimmers (such as the fantail goldfish) to get plenty, but doesn't cloud or pollute the water with the kind of very fine particulates that can irritate fish gills and clog filters faster. In a short but not too short period of time this debris settles out into the sand bed where again it seeds the substrate with the sort of organisms that help it do it's job as well as feeding the shrimp, snails, and bottom-feeding fish.
I final-filter twice, then let the resultant brown water settle for a few minutes until there's a layer of mud at the bottom. Once it's settled, I water any plants that need it, pour the remaining water through the worm composter, and add the mud to my live food buckets and duckweed bins. Nothing goes to waste, and nothing is added back into the creek where any stray MTS (Malaysian trumpet snails) could cause issues of displacement for our native Physa snails.
That's my filtration routine, and these are our goldfish. Enjoy, and may all your places be happy ones:
* The biofilm coating on the impeller is my assumption as in my tanks it happens on its own within a couple of weeks with no other explanation. Cleaning the impeller well may make them noisy again for a few minutes - usually doesn't - but it resolves much more quickly in those cases. Some use silicone grease to lubricate them and say that stops the noise instantly and often permanently, but in any case reports are nearly universal that they do (I say 'nearly' because while I haven't seen reports to the contrary they may exist), after a noisy week or two, stop rattling and run silently except for the flow of water. The rattle they do make at the beginning, again almost universally (and I say 'almost' because I have seen reports from people for whom they ran silently from the beginning), is relieved to a reasonable degree by removing the lid and ensuring that the filter is level, made easy where needed by the included levelers.
** Mulm consists of decaying organic matter (DOM), microalgae, and detritus-eating worms and other organisms, all held together in clumps by biofilm. The fish will take up the large bits, consume the parts they find tasty, and spit out the rest which then gets sucked to the prefilter or settles to the sand bed and either contributes to the substrate's small-organism population or is eaten by bottom-feeders, shrimp, snails, and/or plants.
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