Confusion About Aquarium Filters

We have had a number of recent inquiries about water filters and filtration so it should be useful to review this topic.

Water filters in aquarium keeping are essentially for two purposes:

1.  To clear any cloudiness in the water by mechanical filtration
2.  To remove toxic organic compounds from the water

There are a great variety of water filters for aquarium keeping.  A world wide web search will reveal numerous references on this subject.  Extensive coverages are by Drs Foster & Smith at http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=306, and by Bruce Hallman at http://fins.actions.com/mirror/filters.html. We are not going to repeat their coverages, but to provide further insights.

Cloudiness in the Water

Cloudiness in the water is most often caused in new aquariums by white bacteria making the water milky white.  These bacteria come in through the air searching for food to eat.  New aquariums are often unbalanced with the ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria not yet established.  New aquarists most often overfeed their fish.  New fish in a new aquarium are likely not acclimated and tend not to eat.  Therefore, their food can build up in the bottom and rot.  The white gram-positive bacteria are attracted to it and abundantly multiply, causing the water to appear to be cloudy white . 

Or, there can be dead organisms in the water hidden in the nooks and crannies of the aquarium.  They attract the gram-positive bacteria and cause their multiplication.  The source needs to be found and removed. This is where a bottom suction filter can be of help in removing organisms that are decomposed.

Another way to get rid of the cloudy bacteria is the use of a gram-positive antibiotic such as erythromycin.  However, the cause of the cloudiness still needs to be found and removed.  Remember when using antibiotics that you need to determine whether they are for gram-positive bacteria, or gram negative bacteria, or both.  If their action includes killing gram-positive bacteria, the antibiotics will kill all of the beneficial bacteria in the water as well.  Be sure to read below the section on removing the filter materials or the entire water filters from the aquarium when an antibiotic affecting gram-positive bacteria is used in the water.   

Of course, cloudiness in the water often has nothing to do with bacteria, but with particles floating in the water.  Therefore, filtration is done to trap these particles and remove them from suspension, thereby clearing the water.  This is often done by the use of activated carbon -- either in pads or loose as granules, or by fabric filter pads through which the water is drawn, and by manufactured balls or rings.  Kordon recommends its Bio Mech which are highly charged porous ceramic rings that are effective in particle filtration and in attracting the beneficial ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria to their surfaces.  For Bio Mech the charge lasts indefinitely in attracting the beneficial bacteria to its surfaces.  The ring shapes are slowly rotated by the water flow, keeping the debris moving so that it does not clog the filter. 

Widely available for filter materials are hollow plastic balls.  Plastic balls are not recommended, because the plastic has no surface charge to attract the beneficial bacteria.  The bacteria come when there is debris in the ball chambers on which they can grow.   Then the balls can be effective based on how effective the materials that they hold  are in attracting bacteria. 

Activated Carbon

Activated carbon is recommended for use in filters for several reasons.  It has a surface charge that attracts particles and removes them from the water.  Therefore, the larger the chambers the carbon has, the more likely it is to remove particles that cloud the water .  Its surface charge also attracts the ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria of the nitrogen cycle, providing a home for them to remove toxic ammonia and nitrites from the water which are the nutrients that they live by (see Kordon Article "Biological Filtration..." ).  In fact it is most likely that in an aquarium the main part of the population of these bacteria will be in the filter because it will have the best water flow to bring food to them.  However, the charge that the activated carbon has that attracts the particles and bacteria deteriorates over time within weeks or months.   It then needs to be recharged or replaced.

What To Do About the Water Filters When Using Chemical Treatments in the Aquarium

When chemical treatments for fishes are used in the aquarium, they all tend to kill the beneficial ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria.  Therefore, it is recommended to remove all filter materials (including activated carbon) from the aquarium when chemical water treatments are being made.  For Kordon chemical treatment products this includes removing filter materials when  Rid-Ich+, Formalin-3, Malachite Green, Chelated Copper, Copper-Tru, Acriflavine, Trifon, or Permoxyn are used. 

This would not necessarily include Kordon's herbal treatments "Ich Attack," "Prevent Ich" and "Rid Fungus ," which are not bacterial treatments.  These products may suppress bacterial growth in the water, including the beneficial ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria, but which normally will not kill them all.  However, to be safe, it is best to remove the filter or filter materials when these water treatments are being made, as is stated on their labels, because activated carbon takes out organic compounds from the water.  
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When removing the activated carbon, other filter materials, or entire filters from the aquarium during chemical or herbal treatments, the water flow over the filter materials should be kept running, in order to keep alive the beneficial bacteria that they contain.  This means running water in another container or aquarium over the filter materials or through the filter, until they can be returned to their original position after the chemical treatments are totally completed. Unless some way is used to keep water flowing over the filter materials, the beneficial bacteria in the filter materials will die and decay, polluting the water if the materials are used again.  it is best in this case to use fresh filter materials when the filters are started up again.

What Are The Effects Of Kordon Water Conditioners On Water Filters

The direct answer is that there are no adverse effects on any water filter by Kordon's water conditioners, which include the NovAquas, the AmQuels, PolyAquas, Fish Protectors,  ZymBacs, Tidy Tanks, Tidy Turtle, Trans Clears, Sea Clears, Vita Traces, EZ4Us, and Smart Start Conditioning Kits. 

The only reports we have learned about when there has been any reaction are from occasional increased frothing by protein skimmers, but this has not been an adverse reaction. 

Filtration and the "Nitrogen Cycle"

It is recommended that you read what the "Nitrogen Cycle" is all about to understand what it is in aquarium keeping. 

Filtration is important for the "Nitrogen Cycle," "Biological Filtration," and "New Tank Syndrome" because the filters are to be the primary home of the ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria that carry out this important cycle in aquarium keeping.  However, the excretions of these bacteria are toxic to fishes and other aquatic animals.  Those bacteria that consume the ammonia excrete nitrites that are toxic at levels of less than a part per million or more in the water.  Those bacteria that consume the nitrites excrete nitrates that are toxic at 10 parts per million or more in the water.  Therefore, depending upon bacteria of the nitrogen cycle to detoxify the aquarium is not the answer. 

Either there have to be regular water changes or chemicals need to be used.  Kordon recommends its AmQuel Plus for the job because it quickly detoxifies within five minutes all toxic nitrogen compounds (including ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates) in the water without interfering with the bacteria of the "Nitrogen Cycle."   Therefore, it is a real benefit in aquarium keeping.  The bacteria do not know the difference and continue to consume the nontoxic remnants of ammonia and nitrites in the water.  The AmQuel Plus also detoxifies all the nitrates so that water changes are not urgently needed for this purpose.  Nevertheless, water changes are necessary when the replacement is needed of minor and trace elements in the water that have been assimilated by the fish and other organisms in the water.  It is just that water changes do not need to be made as often as before.
 
Speeding Up the "Nitrogen Cycle"

In aquarium and pond keeping the "Nitrogen Cycle" consists in the water part of that cycle of ammonifying bacteria consuming ammonia and excreting nitrites, and the nitrifying bacteria consuming nitrites and excreting nitrates.  This usually takes about a month or more to go through the "cycle" in tropical aquariums, and proportionately longer in cold water aquarium and pond keeping that may take months to complete, depending upon the temperature of the water.  The colder the water, the lower the metabolism of the bacteria involved. 

As indicated above, as the nitrates build up in the water at the end of the "cycle," and the longer the aquarium or pond exists, the more toxic nitrates that there are in the water.  The only way to get rid of the nitrates is to make water changes, or to use the recommended Kordon's AmQuel Plus to detoxify the nitrates (and all other toxic nitrogen compounds in the water)  But neither of them speed up the "cycle."

That needs to be done by "nitrogen cycle" bacteria that are specially selected and cultured for this purpose.  None will eliminate the "cycle," but they can definitely speed it up.  Kordon recommends its freshwater and tropical marine "ZymBac" products for this purpose.

There is also another way to aid filtration and that is in the use of other types of bacteria and enzymes for the elimination of sludge in older aquariums and ponds and their filters.  As sludge builds up over time, the only way to get rid of it is through bottom and filter cleaning or by using the right bacteria for the purpose.  The latter make things easier over time, for which Kordon's freshwater and tropical marine "Tidy Tank"products are recommended.  For small aquariums of ten gallons or less in size Kordon's EZ4U Sludge Remover Tablets and EZ4U Sludge Tabs for Turtles are recommended.