Preferred Filter - Poll Results

Not long ago I posted a poll up in the sidebar and asked everyone what their preferred filter of choice was, and the results are now in so, be sure to come by again to participate in the next poll!

The top two choices for aquarium filtration were Canister filters at 46% and Power filters at 26%. Sponge, Undergravel and some Other type of filtration were all tied at 20% which left Wet/Dry filters at 6%, and no one appeared to like Internal filters which showed at 0%. 

As for my opinion on the best filter, it really just depends on your setup and what you want to achieve.

Canister filters are great if you need something that can house a lot of beneficial bacteria, but I don't find they always clean the best, although you can add inline UV sterilizers or inline heaters so they are pretty customizable in terms of what you can do. 

A Power filter I find can generally clean better than a Canister filter, but they often lack the capacity to hold a lot of beneficial bacteria which a Canister is more capable of doing. Generally, a Power filter is not as customizable as a Canister filter but Power filters are becoming move advanced with bigger boxes to house more media and built-in UV sterilizers (which before this was mostly a Canister filter feature). 

Both Sponge and Undergravel filters have their place in the aquarium world, but they often don't offer any media benefits, they aren't that customizable and personally, I find them to be more of secondary type of filtration used alongside a Canister or Power filter. They're good if you don't want a lot of water current in a tank, or if you need more surface agitation, and personally the Sponge can give a little beneficial bacteria while an Undergravel filter is really just made to disperse gas from waste and cycle water with carbon which helps to remove discoloring and water chemicals. 

Wet/Dry or Sump filters are very similar to a Canister filter but they're generally on a much larger scale. The reason these may lack popularity based on this poll is because they can become costly and it takes some amount of knowledge at times to set these up properly. These do allow for more water aeration in comparison to the other filters mentioned on here. For large aquarium setups having one of these can practically double a tank's water capacity.

Internal filters are pretty similar to Power filters accept they take up much-needed aquarium space inside the tank and they aren't always that attractive to look at. Most the time I see people recommending these for shallow water pets such as frogs that can go in the water or on land.

As for other types of filters, there are new ones I hear about all the time and recently one of those is a Trickle/Shower filter. This type of filter is similar to a Wet/Dry filter although it usually sits above the water rather than below it. You'll also find Moving Bed and Powerhead filters, and I'm sure some other types that I can't think of at the moment but this should cover the most popular of filters you'll come across in the aquarium hobby today. 

Also, big THANKS to everyone who helped participate in my poll because you helped to make this post possible.

Cucumber Water in the Aquarium

I know, I know, it has been awhile since I have attempted any new little side experiments but being that I'm on summer vacation from University means that I have a bit more free time on my hands.

The Experiment
For today's experiment, I was curious what would happen if I added some homemade cucumber water into my goldfish aquarium (I'm not sure if you should try this with all types of fish but you can try it on yourself). I was originally hoping that it would work as a diuretic much like that of pea's being fed to a goldfish in order to alleviate some bladder issues because according to my research it's supposed to be more of a diuretic than that of peas. You may be wondering "why didn't you just feed it to them" and I did try to do that but they weren't that interested in actually eating it even though they acknowledged it being there. So by making cucumber water they basically have no choice but to ingest it via the aquarium water (right?). Cucumber water also allows the fish to get some nutrients and electrolytes in the process, just in case this diuretic ordeal doesn't work out, but as always try this at your own risk.

What you'll need...
1 - Cucumber (preferably organic)
2 Cups - Water, bottled

Start by washing the cucumber thoroughly. Peel the skin off of the cucumber. Slice the cucumber into 1/4 inch slices. Place the cucumber into a glass container of appropriate size. Add in the water (it should cover the cucumber), close the container, and place in the fridge for at least 24hrs. Discard the cucumber (or eat it yourself) and the pour the water into a cup. Allow the cucumber water to get room temperature and pour it into the aquarium.

Results
While I did not find that this worked as a diuretic (perhaps my batch was too small for a 30gal tank or maybe I should've turned off my filter) I did find this worked more as an appetite enticer (more so than when I used garlic drops for goldfish). Once the tasty cucumber water was added into the tank it took no time at all for the goldfish to quickly zoom about the tank in search of something tasty to eat (in which case I fed them some sinking pellets to watch them gobble those up). So perhaps if you have finicky freshwater fish that are into eating vegetables but they haven't been eating much lately then you could give this a try in order to entice them or perhaps force feed a sick fish (which is what I do with Vitachem).

Boba Painting for Sale!!!

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen my lovely acrylic impasto painting of Boba the telescope butterfly fancy goldfish. Thanks to YAG (click the link to purchase) I am now able to sell everyone a copy of my lovely fish friend. I don't know how long I will have this painting for sale so get 'em while you can!

Also, big thanks for everyone's support, I am so blessed to have wonderful fish followers like you and I am happy to announce that Guppy-Guide has now reached 200 Followers on Instagram.

Fish Room / Bedroom Tour

I finally got around to putting together a video of my Fish Room / Bedroom! This is my first official Guppy-Guide video on YouTube so let me know if you enjoyed this in the comments below and I'll see about making more video content for you in the future. Thanks for watching and don't forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE.