Aquarium Filtration System - Should You Consider Undergravel

There is no doubt that keeping your aquarium clean is crucial to the well-being of your fish and plant. The quality of the water is critical and whether your fish and plant thrives or not depends a lot on the condition of the water. Aquarium filter is essential to keep your tank clean and free from harmful toxin and wastes that accumulates over time.

One popular and widely used aquarium filtration system is the under gravel filter. As the name suggest, the filtration component is located beneath the gravel that is normally used as a form of substrate inside the fish tank. One drawback to this system is that you need to vacuum the gravel in the tank frequently. You need to do this to prevent waste particles and debris trap in the gravel from affecting the performance of the under gravel filter.

Some people perceive it as a hassle to replace this system as it involves major overhaul of the aquarium. You need to remove the gravel and almost everything along with it. The main advantage with under gravel filtration system is that it is quite efficient as well as easy to install and operate. You don't need to deal with stuff hanging on the back of your aquarium like some other filtration systems.

All the major components for this type of filtration system are concealed under the gravel with basically columns that run up the corners, which have one-way valves within them. You can increase the performance and efficiency of most under gravel system by adding a power-head filter.

A 'power-head' is basically the part of the filter that ejects water into the aquarium. Complimenting your under gravel filtration system with a power head is important because it facilitate the pushing of fresh, filtered water from the under gravel system back to your aquarium. Doing so will also produce oxygen bubbles into your fish tank and provide adequate oxygen to your fish.

It is important for you to keep your fish tank in clean condition. Your fish could easily contract disease, become ill and even perish as a result of a dirty and poorly maintain tank. Assembling together a good filtration system won't require much time and effort at all. It is quite easy to set up an under gravel filter. The best part of this filtration system is that it is located right down where the waste is, rendering it remarkably simpler to remove it from your aquarium thus keeping your tank clean all the time.