How Do Filters Work?

[michaelb_123]

Heylo guys!!!

Just had to get a new filter cuz my fluval 2 randomly stopped! Motors workin n everythin but it wasnt suckin water in or squirtin it out. Anoyin as hell cuz fluval 2s arent tht cheap.

Anyway besides that i have got another internal filter, not fluval. They didn't have any normal ones in stock, only the plus versions that were OTT for what i needed. .

Anyhow on the way home i took it apart just to generally check everythin is ok n that n was randomly fascinated in how the stuff in there works. .

Any of you experts able to explain to me and other potential amateurs in this matter?

Like explain how the process works, what the black stuff - carbon i think - actually does.

How the bacteria works

I do know about the whole ammonia and tank cycling to no need to explain that.


Help would be appreciated as it would be nice to know

Muchas gracias

-Enthusiast -

 

[CFC]

Filters are really quite simple.

The filter media is split into 3 parts, mechanical, biological and chemical.

Firstly the mechanical media traps any large particals of waste that are drawn into the filter and prevents them from reaching the finer biological media which would otherwise cause the filter to clog up. Some filters have a second stage of mechanical media after the chemical stage which removes very fine particals to really polish the water up.
Mechanical media comes in many forms from coarse sponges to ceramic rings to filter wool.

Secondly the water is drawn through a stage of biological media, this is usually a substance which has a highly pourous surface area which allows for masses of bacteria to colonise the surface which convert ammonia-nitrite-nitrate. There are many types of biological media from basic fine grade sponges through to sphintered glass beads and bio balls.

Thirdly some filters use a chemical stage to remove dissolved organic and inorganic compounds from the water, the most common of these is activated charcoal or carbon but there are several other types of chemical media available which specialise in absorbing particular comounds such as Rowaphos which removes phosphates or Nitrazorb which removes nitrogen compounds (nitrite/nitrate).

 

[dgwebster]

and now for the really mechanical part: how the water gets sucked through.

this part is really simple, as its simply an induction motor, where the external motor is held slightly seperated from the impeller.

an electric motor is really simple. You have a shaft in the middle, that gets spun round. The way it manages to spin is done with electomagnets.

as the rotor spins, the polarity is switched ensuring that the north/south magnetic side of the impeller is always at the same north/south side of the driving magnets - try putting two magnets of the same polarity together, they force apart, in this case, its easier to spin round for the motor than break into bits.

This link shows a basic diagram of a motor where the pin is connected. with a pump, the impeller stays the same, its the motor inside which switches magnetic polarity forcing the impeller to spin.

the blades in the impeller cause a suction effect as its in a pipe - much like a jet engine works - sucking water up through the filter and media before forcing it out the exit.

hope this was easy to understand, its very easy to not explain something i feel is very simple, cos i already know it.