Help....what Should My Filter Acheive?

[ice maiden]

Maybe i am being really thick here...but this is starting to stress me out....
What should my filter actually do???

I bought a jewel trigon 190 tank which comes with a built in filter system.....

But i really dont think its filtering anything!!!! I have had fish in my tank for a week now, and the amount of debris within the gravel is enourmous....is this right???

is the problem that the filter isnt powerful enough for the tank I cant find anywhere the spec of the actual pump unit for the filter so i guess that doesnt help much

advice please guys

 

[Lateral Line]

Filters are partly mechanical, but mostly biological.

A filter with the correct media will extract particulate matter from the water if it is floating around sufficiently to be drawn into the filter, it will not generate enough current to pull heavy particulate waste into the filter. Heavy waste is removed during tank cleaning with a siphon, gravel cleaner or a dip tube. This kind of particulate waste is unsightly, but is not particularly dangerous if removed regulaly.

Far more dangerous is the waste chemicals, (mostly nitrogen compounds), produced by your fish which are not visible, they are dissolved in the water. Untreated, this will quickly kill them, they would be swimming in their own sewage. The filter is colonised by bacteria during cycling which use this material as food and process it into less harmful forms ammonia->nitrite->nitrate. The nitrates you remove when you do your water changes.

It is my personal opinion that the "built in" filters on most complete setup type rigs are at least, sub-optimal, but as long as you have a sensible stock level, they should be adequate in the majority of cases.

 

[Gazoo]

But i really dont think its filtering anything!!!! I have had fish in my tank for a week now, and the amount of debris within the gravel is enourmous....is this right???

What/how many fish do you have and what/how much do you feed them?

 

[ice maiden]

I have got 12 fish in there, guppies, mollies, plec whiteclouds.....

I feed them flake food once a day dont put very much in there either

 

[Lateral Line]

Plec's are notorious for producing large quantities of waste. It is difficult to add more to what I said before, what is "a lot" to some people is normal to others for example.

 

[cujoho78]

Hi. I agree with Lateral Line when he (she?) says "Filters are partly mechanical, but mostly biological."
The filter needs to be able to filter all the water in the aquarium 4 or 5 times per hour minimum. More is better. No filter though will keep waste from settling to the bottom. You will have to get a gravel vacuum to suck out the waste. Most people do this when they do their weekly/ bi-weekly water changes. Good luck.

 

[Spiceweasel69]

Hey. I have exactly the same problem. I have the Juwel Vision 260 witht the standard H filter. Im buying 2 externals, both around 1000lph, fluval 404s or eheims, and connecting one as standard, but the other is going to connect beneath an undergravel tray, so a throughflow of 1000 lph pureley undergravel. Im hoping this will keep the mess at the bottom at a minimum, though vacuming will still be needed.