nativelover said:
Most people don't think much of the old undergravel filter for biological filtration and I agree that they are not the best type to use. However, as lowly of a filter that they are considered, lets compair them to these hang on the back type filters that include biological filtration.
THese filters with thier "wheels" or chambers for media are way to small to process waste as efficiently as we want. Compair the entire bottom of an aquarium with 2" of gravel's surface area for bacteria to live in to the surface area in one of these HOB's. Not even close!!!! SO if the undergrave sucks so bad, why are these hob's with tiny biological media areas so great when they don't have the waste processing capability of the undergravel?
Many people think they have great water quality because thier water looks clear or thier fish live or when they test the water, it tests out good. It is often times not the case. I have seen beautiful looking aquariums with horrible water quality many times. The biggest problem I see is a person tests thier water and it comes out fine everytime but the thing they don't know is what goes on every day in thier tank. It's very common that a tank with these hob's have regular water quality fluctuations like from feeding for example. A person feeds thier tank and it will have a minor water quality problem that is corrected by the filter within the same day. THe tank owner never knew it happened, the fish do though. THis is largly the fault of filter manufactures, Filter "X" is good for aquariums up to "X" amount of gallons. Good at what? Dirt trapping and chemical filtration mostly.......... biological filtration - rarley. Just something to concider when evaluating filter systems....
