Newbie filter questions?

[Kawaipoon]

Hi all,

I just wanted to know, what does adding more filtration mean?

For example if i have a internal filter and brought an additional external filter, does it mean more fish? less water changes? what does it provide?

Thanks

 

[Aces11]

More filtration allows more water flow and it allows more BB to grow therefore it breaks down ammonia and nitrite better. Not sure if it does much more than that though. I'll let someone else chime in because I'm not an expert on filtration.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I was say yes to all of your assumptions. However, it still depends... The new filter would still require time to mature and establish Ben. Bac. Colonies for it to be truely effective.

 

[Dale_I]

Adding mechanical filtration raises the capacity of the impurities that you can collect from the water in your tank. Adding bacterial filtration allows for more conversion to nitrates. Adding filtration also increases the cycle rate of the tank - how many times the water can get turned over in the tank.

However, removing the nitrates in the tank takes water changes. The BB will equalize with your bio load. If you add additional fish and convert the additional bio load with additional filtration, it will increase the amount of water you are required to change, or increase the times you do your PWC per week. For example, maybe you do 2 PWC of 35% instead of 1 PWC of 50%.

As well, to oxygenate the water you need surface movement. Although the filtration should cause additional current in the tank, you have to make sure the surface of the water has enough agitation.