What is biological filtration in an aquarium?
Aquariums fill up with fish waste, food that the fish haven’t eaten, and dead plants, fish, and coral. These things don’t look good and can break down into poisons like ammonia and nitrate that can kill reefs and fish. The natural process in tanks that changes these unwanted things into harmless gases and materials is called biological filtration. A popular name for this process is the nitrogen cycle.
How does biological filtration work?
Please remember these things about keeping the living balance in your aquarium:
When you feed your fish, a lot of unwanted things often get into the tank. Some fish food is left over, and some is eaten and then thrown out by the fish. The fish waste and food that the fish don’t eat break down into poisonous chemicals that can hurt the other animals in the tank.
Animals like shrimp, snails, and crabs that scavenge (eat leftover food and fish waste) can be the first step in biological filtering. Remember that these animals that hunt for food will also go to waste. This waste will break down into poisonous ammonia and phosphorous, but not as much.
Ammonia is broken down into nitrite by aerobic bacteria. After that, more oxygen bacteria eat the nitrite and change it into nitrate. Aerobic bacteria live in places with a lot of air.
It takes anaerobic bacteria, nitrate, phosphorous, and carbon to break down nitrate into nitrogen gas after it has been changed from nitrite. Nitrogen gas goes back into the air after leaving the tank. Low-oxygen places are home to anaerobic bacteria.
Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are bad for reefs and fish, but they are needed for plants to grow in fresh water. Nitrite, ammonia, nitrate, and phosphorous are all things that plants and algae use as nutrients.
How Do I Use Biological Filtration?
In the last part, we talked about how bacteria, algae, scavenger animals, and plants in freshwater can all work together in a biological filtration system.
Natural Bacteria
Biological filtering with bacteria happens all the time. Bacteria can be found in the water, the air, and many of the surfaces in a tank. To make this process better, it’s important to get as much surface area as possible. This can be done with biosoil or a biogrid, which can be added to a canister filter or sump or given with canister filters and power filters. Bio balls, bio media, bio rings, or clay rings are some of the names for this type of media.
