What’s the difference between air pumps and water filters?
Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at
1:36 pm
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Air pumps only pump air into the water to add more oxygen. Filters actually clean the water by mechanical, chemical, and biological means. Power filters do the job of filtration and surface agitation. Give some details about the type of tank you want, and i can help you out a lot more. I need to know size, salt or fresh water, type of fish, and how much you want to spend.
Air pumps are used for underground filters and add oxygen to your tank.. Power heads and pumps can pull or push water through a filter ! Theirs many different kinds.Do your home work and I think you will find water pumps work best.
Here’s the easiest way I can tell you with out getting into too many details (and fish tanks are all about details, you’ll soon find out), A reg behind the tank filter cleans the bad stuff (like fish poo) that builds up in the water by "filtering" it through the carbon pads that are inserted in the back of the filter. With out a filter your fish will die. Unless you just have one gold fish, or one beta.
Anyway then the filter dumps the cleaned water back into the tank.
An air pump, hooks to under gravel filters (another type of filter system) or to stones or powerheads and adds air to the tank that the fish need to live.
Go to pet smart or something like it and ask for help. You have a lot to learn!
****Don’t forget if you are just gonna have a fresh water tank to let your tank sit filed up and running with the filter on for about a week before you try and put fish in. : )
Air pumps just send air into the tank and can be used with toys or bubblers to keep the oxygen to hydrogen ratio right in the water. Filters can either go on the bottom of the tank or hang on the side and they pump the water through a carbon and cotton filter to remove waste. We always had a couple of algae eaters in the tank as well to help with keeping it clean. I have used both types of filters and I think that the ones that hang on the side of the tank work the best but you have to keep on top of them to make sure they don’t get plugged up.
An air pump is just what it sounds like: it’s a device used to move air from one place to another. They’re commonly employed to move air to bubblers and some aquarium decorations. Water never enters the pump.
Strictly speaking, air-powered devices such as bubblers are never necessary. Unlike common belief, they don’t add any oxygen to the tank water. They do aid gaseous exchange when the bubbles they create pop at the surface (because any disturance to the water surface will do so), but the air that’s pumped in doesn’t dissolve into the tank water. Such devices are decorative, and can certainly add to the aethetic value of a tank, but their effects on water quality are mostly negligible.
A water filter is a device that the tank water moves through in order to alter the water quality in a beneficial way. The water enters through one place and exits through another, and often passes through various media along the way that alters the water chemistry.
Filters are usually broken up into several categories depending on how they alter the water. Biological filters employ media with a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow on. These bacterial colonies remove ammonia and nitrite from fish waste dissolved in the water, releasing a less toxic substance, nitrate. Chemical filters employ resins, activated carbon, and other substances that adsorb various undesirable chemicals in the water. Mechanical filters trap debris so that it doesn’t settle and decay in the water. Any mechanical filter will have some biological benefit, as any method used to trap the debris will provide surface area for the appropriate bacterial colonies to grow on.
Obviously, some methods employ multiple forms of filtration. It’s common to see all 3 types advertised by power filters, which use a detritus-trapping pad (mechanical/biological) with some granules of activated carbon inside (chemical). Some also have water pass around a spinning "biowheel" upon which bacteria will grow like crazy (biological).
There are other filtration devices that don’t employ any of these means to achieve their specific use, such as protein skimmers, but most fall within these categories.
Because water flow in and out of filters, most filters end up disrupting the surface of the tank just like a bubbler would, thus aiding in gaseous exhange. Also, some filters (such as some sponge filters) employ air pumps, and such pumps are usually sold separately. However, most filters don’t require such devices.
I’m surprised that you can’t find filters, though. They’re sold at just about every pet/aquarium store known to mankind, and they abound on the Internet.