Filtration For The Discus Tanks

Filtration is essential, Filtration is the life support system of the aquarium. In the aquarium, beneficial bacteria. Mechanical filtration removes the uneaten food, waste products and acumulated plant waste from the tank. Filtering using chemical filtration takes place at the molecular level. What discus want is: excellent water quality, free of toxins like chlorine, ammonia, nitrite, phosphate, etc.; correct water chemistry, pH and water hardness; and proper temperature, between 82 and 86F. The most commonly used medium is activated charcoal.

If your tap water is overly high in phosphates or nitrates, there is the chance that your fish won't do well until you pretreat the water with activated charcoal or other specific resins. Mechanical and chemical filtration results can be seen visibly - the tank just looks cleaner. Even though chemical filtration does remove some of the toxic materials from the water, it takes biofiltration to make the water safe for habitation.
Diatom and micron filters are used to capture super fine particles of dirt. The use of these materials for fine filtration is excellent for discus and their water.


Usually mechanical filtration is confused with biological filtration because the same media is sometimes incorrectly used for both types of filtration .When cleaning the media, use only tank water. Never use hot water or fresh tap water to clean the sponges or media, but instead gently rinse and carefully wring out excess water in a pail of tank water.

Activated carbon is not meant to be used as filter media in biological filters. It is often combined with filter floss and left in the filter for an indeterminate period of time.
Many Discus lovers have nothing but a few large sponge filters in their tanks. Sponge filters are driven by air pumps that draw water through a sponge.There are many types of biological filters. The sponge filter is gently squeezed in a bucket of tank water once a week and the resident nitrobacters do a fine job of converting the ammonia and nitrite.

They are poor for mechanical filtration. With regular rinsing of the sponge, a sponge filter will provide a little mechanical filtration without endangering the baby fish. Sponge filters are excellent for biological filtration.As many different types of biological filter as there are, there are more types of media. Biological filtration is critical to the health of your fish.Simple filter floss is very inexpensive and effective. Sponge filters have no chemical filtration capability.

It may be that you use a small sponge filter on the intake tube of your power or canister filter. Some filters have special chambers for prefiltration media. Even the old-fashioned box filter with a layer of gravel and some filter floss will perform effective mechanical filtration. These fine materials trap the dirt as the water passes through them. Mechanical filters must be changed or cleaned weekly. Just wash, rinse, or replace that mechanical filter media as often as possible.