Biological, Chemical and Mechanical Aquarium Filter Media

Don’t get your fins in a twist but the topic of aquarium filter media can get a little bit confusing.

The filter that you have for your fish tank may use one or a combination of the following – biological, filtration, chemical filtration and mechanical filtration.

Biological filtration

To put it simply –biological filtration is filtering which is done by friendly bacteria. These nitrifying bacteria exist inside your filter and help to get rid of toxins in the water.

Fish tank filter media for biological filtration that you’ll find in our online store includes – aquarium filter wool, ceramic noodles and sponge pads.

Chemical filtration

Chemical filtration uses (yep, you guessed it!) chemically enhanced media to remove undesirable elements in the water.

Chemical filtration is often seen as optional whereas the other two methods are mostly standard across all fish tanks.

Fish tank filter media for chemical filtration that you’ll find in our online store includes – carbon filters, phosphate pads and Bio ChemZorb and API Nitra Zorb.

Mechanical filtration

Mechanical filtration physically captures particles of food and waste. Media like sponges are normally used because they have large wholes that trap the larger particles.

Fish tank filter media for mechanical filtration that you’ll find in our online store includes – filter wool, cartridge pads, carbon cartridges and sponge.