Do Goldfish Need A Filter: Everything About Aquarium Filter

Aquarium filters are essential for every fish tank to maintain water quality and remove waste from the fish tank. Aquarium filters remove physical and chemical substances from the water such as uneaten food waste, fish waste, and harmful substances like ammonia and nitrites.

Goldfish aquariums need filters for maintaining the quality of water because sudden changes in water parameters or water quality will affect the health of goldfish or the goldfish will become stressed.

Without an aquarium filter, it will be hard to maintain the water quality and water parameters because sudden changes in the water quality will make differences in the pH Level. The goldfish will stay at the top for gasping air. It was essential to keep an aquarium Filter in every fish tank for removing the waste substances. In this article, you’ll learn more about aquarium filters and how to set up aquarium filters and maintain them.

What are aquarium filters?

An aquarium filter is a system designed for removing physical and chemical substances from the water. Aquarium filters are essential for every fish to maintain the water quality by removing waste substances. There are three types of aquarium filters such as mechanical filter, biological filter, and chemical filter. 

Mechanical Filter: Mechanical filter removes the physical waste such as fish waste, and uneaten food from the water. The sponge or floss materials will trap the solid waste from the aquarium and provide quality water after cleaning.

Chemical Filter: A chemical filter will remove dissolved impurities from the water through activated carbons. This filter will remove chemical substances that are harmful to goldfish such as nitrates, ammonia, etc.

Biological Filter:  Biological filters support the nitrogen cycle in the aquarium. It will convert the harmful waste substance into less harmful nitrates through biological filtration.

Why aquarium filters are essential for Goldfish tank

Aquarium filters are essential for goldfish tanks for removing the physical and chemical substances from the water. If the water becomes dirty, the goldfish struggle to breathe or become stressed.

The fishes produce waste mainly in the form of ammonia that was highly toxic but the bacteria will convert it into less harmless nitrates. An efficient filter will maintain the water quality and weekly filter maintenance is important.

What are the benefits of aquarium filters?

The main benefit of aquarium filters is maintaining the water quality and removing physical and chemical substances from the aquariums. To keep your fish and aquatic environment healthy, you need to set up an aquarium filter.

It will generate water movement for increasing the oxygen content. In this process, the aquarium filter is helping the gas exchange process. 

Removing waste substances such as uneaten food waste, fish poop waste, and other decade plants, etc. Other benefits are reducing the growth of algae and decreasing the ammonia spreading in the water.

How long can goldfish live without a filter?

The lifespan of goldfish without filters depends upon various factors such as water quality, tank size, and feeding habits. If the water quality becomes dirty then goldfish breathe faster and stay more time at the top for gasping air.

Goldfish produce a lot of waste that makes reduce the water quality. It will be hard to maintain the water quality without a filter because you need to regularly change 40% of the water and refill it with fresh water.

What are the best filters for goldfish aquariums?

These are the most popular filter with high ratings, I have been using the tetra Whisper IQ Power filter in my aquariums.

• 1. Marineland Penguin Bio-Wheel Power Filter 150 GPH, Multi-Stage Aquarium Filtration
• 2. Tetra Whisper IQ Power Filter, 175 GPH, with Stay Clean Technology, 30 Gallons
• 3. Tetra Whisper 4 Gallon Internal Power Filter, Filtration for 4 Gallon Aquariums

I will be creating a detailed review of each filter as soon as possible.

Different types of Aquarium filters?

These are the different kinds of filters that you can use for cleaning fish tanks. The filter will make the cleaning job easier for fish keepers. So I recommend using one filter for every fish tank according to the size required.

Sponge Filters

Sponge filters are the best cost-effective filter for cleaning fish tank water. The sponge filter works well for small aquariums, you can select the size of the sponge filter according to your preference. The air pump pushes the air through a sponge filter and the rising air bubbles will help to collect the debris from water for allowing beneficial bacteria growth.

Box Filters

Most people consider box filters are the traditional technology for cleaning aquariums. But they don’t know the advantages of using box filters. I have been using box filters in my aquariums and it was doing the job fantastically. Don’t worry about outdated technologies, they will also work in a cost-effective manner.

For all of my breeding tanks, I run box filters because it is super flexible. The best feature of box filters is, that you can add anything for filtration such as a sponge, stones, gravel, etc.

Canister Filters

It is a type of filter used for cleaning the water in aquariums. It was little expensive filtration. a canister filter will increase the lifespan of each fish in the aquarium. The canister filter will remove the water from the aquarium and filter in the CAN, after filtration, it will release the water to the aquarium through another valve.

Undergravel Filters

An under-gravel filter is a type of filter that can be used for large fish tanks. it was located beneath the gravel in your aquariums. It was one of the best filtrations that cleaned the entire aquarium such as waste, debris, etc.

Hang-on-back filters

Hang-on back filters are good for beginner fish keepers. It can do all three filtrations such as biological, mechanical, chemical, etc. It was the best-performed filter to use in aquariums.

How to set up Aquarium Filters?

Before setting up Aquarium filters, you need to know the basics of an aquarium filtration system. There are certain installation guides for setting aquarium filters. So let’s start with an empty tank.

1. Start with an Empty Tank

First of all, don’t install a filter in your stocked aquarium because it can hurt plants and fish. If you have fish and live plants living in aquariums then don’t install filters without removing them.

You need to move fish and live plants from the aquarium for setting up a new filter. That’s why Starting with an empty aquarium will be easy to install. You can prevent fish and live plants from injuries and stress.

2. Consider a suitable position for the filter

Provide a suitable place for the filter. take a good look at your aquarium setup and where you can place the filter. Good placement of aquarium filters is the key to enjoying the filtration efficiency of the tank.

3. Install All filtration parts in the aquarium

After installation of the filter in the aquarium, you can double-check that the filter was installed correctly according to the manual. Now you can start testing the working performance of the filter.

Run your filter for a few and if it is working without any problems then it’s good. But if you find any wrong, then fix it correctly and run.

How To Make (DIY) Filter for Fish Tank?

To make a DIY Filter, you can watch the video below. But I won’t recommend using DIY Filter because it cannot clean the aquarium like a standard filter. Make sure it works better than a normal filter or else you can buy a new filter for the aquarium.

What happens if you don’t put a filter in a fish tank?

If you don’t install a filter on the aquarium, then it will reduce the lifespan of fish and plants inside the aquarium. A filter will help to clean water over and over again for removing the debris and ammonia inside the tank.

You can keep the fish in an aquarium without a filter, but you need to clean the aquarium once in 4 days to keep the fish and plants alive.

A fish can live without a filter for a maximum of 7 days and a minimum of 3 days, so you need to worry about fish health.

Try To install a good filter in your aquarium.