Unboxing and setting up a fish bowl filter:
Like fish tanks, fish bowls also
require a quality filter for trapping fish waste, dead leaves, leftover food
and removing toxins released from fish waste. In this tutorial, I am going to
unbox and setup a fish bowl filter for a 15-gallon bowl aquarium.
Fish bowl filter sucks dirty
water from the tank and a nozzle sprays water with pressure. Fish bowl filters
can be used for oxygenating water. It can also circulate water in the fish
bowl.
Fish bowl filters are available
for low cost. It is actually an internal filter which should be fully submerged
in water. It has a good flow rate and works fine in a 15-gallon fish bowl. It
has a low power consumption.
Fish bowl filter comes with a foam that is used for both mechanical and biological filtration.
In below video you can watch how to unbox and setup a fish bowl filter:
How to unbox and setup a fish bowl filter
Fish tank inhabitants such as
fish and invertebrates like to swim in high current water. Moving water
imitates wild habitat of fish in tanks such as moving rivers and streams which
keeps fish healthy and happy.
Unboxing a fish bowl filter:
Open the box of fish bowl filters
(internal filter) and take out the stuff. The package only includes a filter.
After opening the filter, I found 2 foams: coarse & fine, as well as some
bio media. New filter media does not contain good bacteria and it takes time to
allow heaps of useful bacteria to grow on the mechanical and bio media. Foams
and bio media provide lots of surface for the growth of useful bacteria. I
would highly encourage you to add one aquapro booster ball in the filter to
quickly grow beneficial bacteria on the filter media.
Mechanical Filter Media:
Fish bowl filter comes with
coarse and fine foams. Coarse foam is used for collecting all big particles
while small particles that are able to pass coarse foam are trapped by fine
foam. Large particles if trapped in fine foam will clog it very quickly so make
sure you setup coarse foam first before fine foam.
Biological Media:
Fish bowl filters come with some
bio media that allows heaps of good bacteria to grow on its surface. Bio media
offers a large surface for the growth of large colonies of useful bacteria.
Mechanical filter media will serve a double role such as it will trap debris
and will allow heaps of beneficial bacteria to grow on the large surface of the
foams.
Installing an internal filter in fish bowl:
After putting the media back in
the filter, it is time to install a filter in the fish bowl. Use suction cups
at the back of the fish bowl filter to fix it to the tank glass. Turn on the
power to operate the filter. There is an adjustable flow rate at the top of the
filter which can be used to select the water flow rate. This filter does not
come with a spray bar. There is no air tube for aerating water. If you want to
produce bubbles for oxygenating water then angle the filter towards the water
surface which will break the surface of water and add atmospheric oxygen in the
water due to surface agitation. Angling up the filter will also circulate
water, and will push fish waste and other debris towards the filter so that
filter can easily collect it. It will help the fish bowl filter to sweep around
the entire tank in a single direction.
Cleaning fish bowl filter media:
Switch off the power before
taking out the fish bowl filter. Remove the cover of the filter and remove all
the media. Clean the coarse and fine foams in a bucket filled with fish bowl
water. Do not use tap water because it will wipe out useful bacteria growing on
the foams. Gently squeeze foams in the water until it stops releasing murky
water. After cleaning the foams, put all media back in the fish bowl filter. Do
not air dry filter media because good bacteria need water for living and they
can’t survive outside water. Install the filter immediately in the fish bowl
and turn on power. Never turn off your filter so that your bowl remains clean.
Do not wash bio media because you
will lose heaps of beneficial bacteria. Foams will stop dirt and debris from
reaching bio media so there is no need to wash the bio media.
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