Tropical Fish Tanks Basics of a Wet-Dry Filter

Wet dry filter systems

Let me go further into explaining a wet-dry filter system in addition to the video, so that some of you beginners may not become confused. If you ARE confused as to what filter system to buy for your fish tank, or if you're needing a tropical fish book to have handy while setting up your filter system, "Katy's Complete Guide to Tropical Fish" has a ton of useful information you can have at your finger tips.

One of the key elements in a wet-dry filter is "oxygen absorption". Your fish need a good supply of oxygen from the water. As the water flows down through the chambers of a wet dry filter, oxygen is being exchanged from the air into the water. The surface of the bioballs contain nitrifying bacteria ("nitrifying" meaning, they feed off the pollutants in the water passing over them) also need oxygen from the air to function properly.

Wet dry filters differ in their design, but the overall filtering process is the same. All of them will have chambers the water passes through to allow for the filtration process. They will all contain a layer of "pre-filter" padding, which is usually a filter pad made of synthetic fiber material. This dense fiber will trap all of the particles which are too big to seep through. These pre-filter pads will need to be changed often (probably weekly, if not every two to three weeks).

Bio balls also require some maintenance because they eventually get dirty after a while. If you have a new tank setup (less than 6 months old), you will only want to clean a portion of your bio-balls at one time. Check out this article for instructions on how to clean bio-balls:

How to clean bio-balls

There's a lot more choices as to enhancing your wet dry filter system so you can get much better water quality output. As for now, just learn the basics, and I'll go into the finer details at a later time.