How to choose filter media
Update time: 22-07-16 Views: 763
How to choose filter media?
When it comes to the breeding of ornamental fish, we have to mention the core and most critical hardware in the tank - filter material. Filter material is the core component of the entire filtration system, which is directly related to the quality of water quality and the state of organisms.
How to choose filter media? I believe you will know after reading the following three questions.
The first question is, what is filter material?
Almost every novice aquarist faces this problem. The main function of the filter material is to breed nitrifying bacteria, treat harmful substances such as ammonia nitrogen and nitrite in the water, keep the water quality stable, and give the fish a good living environment.
Nitrifying bacteria are the top priority for the fish tank ecosystem. It can be said that the quality of nitrifying bacteria directly determines the quality of fish culture.
The second question, what are the types of filter media?
Filter material is a big concept, as long as it has two characteristics, it can be used as a filter material.
First, it is porous and multifaceted.
Second, no harmful substances dissolve into the water body.
At present, the types of filter materials on the market are roughly divided into three types. One is ceramic filter materials, such as ceramic rings, volcanic stones, bacterial houses, etc. The raw materials are the same, but the form is different.
Ceramic filter material is made of clay sintered at high temperature. It has a large specific surface area, good bacteria cultivation effect, easy powdering and slag removal, short service life and relatively cheap unit price.
The second is plastic filter material, such as: rattan cotton, brush;
The plastic filter material has poor cultivating effect, does not pulverize, does not drop slag, is relatively cheap, and has poor use effect.
The third is a new generation of non-ceramic organic filter media, namely cake filter media.
The cake filter material is an organic polymer material with a large specific surface area, good bacteria cultivation effect, no pulverization, no slag loss, and a long service life. The disadvantage is that the unit price is relatively expensive.
The third question, how to clean the filter material? How often to replace?
The cleaning of traditional ceramic filter media is more troublesome, because almost all the nitrifying bacteria are washed away after one cleaning, generally only one-fifth of each cleaning. Due to pulverization, slag loss and other reasons, it generally needs to be replaced once a year.
The plastic filter material is relatively easy to clean, but all the nitrifying bacteria are lost after cleaning.
The cleaning of the new cake filter material is relatively convenient. Throw it into the washing machine directly, or scrub it with gravity, and 70% of the bacteria are still solid after cleaning. Organic materials are inert materials, do not accumulate acid, and generally have a service life of more than ten years.
Of course, the quality of the filter material also includes many parameters such as conductivity, hydrophilicity, bacterial culture area, water absorption speed, and bacteria hanging rate. We will compare various filter materials in the laboratory in the future push.
