Press release: aquarium filter evolution to boost Hobby revival.

A decade long persistent stagnation of the Aquarium Industry has repeatedly been blamed on video games, mobile phones and other electronic entertainment, but information derived from the 2008 APPA National Pet Owners Survey shows that a staggering 89% of aquarium hobbyists are unhappy mainly because of present unsatisfactory maintenance related problems, but the long anticipated application of the filter-flush function in aquarium filters could finally reverse this slippery trend.

Indeed the filter-backwash technique used with great success in Aquaculture systems since the mid-seventies has lately been “cracked” for the smaller aquarium filters by an ingenious Australian hobbyist/inventor.  Backwashing those large Bead-filters was a necessity brought on by the high fish-farming livestock densities, but so far this flush function had eluded the smaller aquarium filters, despite many obvious maintenance benefits it would offer.

Change has now reached the US with the recent market appearance of the Aqua Genie HOB filter; the very first aquarium power filter with easy instant filter-flush function, capable of removing most captured solid fish-waste from the filter in seconds, with little water wastage. No other aquarium filter has ever reached this evolutionary milestone before.

Evacuating the solid organic debris from an aquarium system eradicates the pollution at the source and reduces drastically the noxious nutrient levels in that system. The resulting restricted Nitrates and Phosphates prevent any unwanted proliferation of filamentous and/or other algae.

Not only is cleaning the filter fast and easy, but all additional maintenance is noticeably lesser and water quality remarkably better!  Why would anybody still want to “digest” the fish-waste with those traditional filters, when it is so much easier and better to simply “dispose” of it? 

Common sense may now prevail; flush-filters can at last become the norm even in smaller aquariums and should give the Aquarium Industry a much needed “shot in the arm” as the flush function can be included in all types of internal, external or in-hood aquarium filters.

Ultimate solution to a lingering problem: smarter aquarium maintenance!

Aquariums and home fishponds are living ecosystems with closed water recirculation. Hobbyists have been offered many different methods of keeping their aquariums or fishponds clean but unfortunately most aquarium filter systems produced so far have completely missed the point, because instead of removing the pollutants, the current filter systems rely on naturally occurring bacteria in the so called “bio-filter” to neutralize the fish waste by actually “recycling” them! 

The very new Aqua Genie approach to aquarium maintenance insists more on removing the source of the pollution instead of treating the pollution itself.   In an Aqua Genie filter, the liquid fish-waste is still treated the traditional way by the sintered glass Bio-pearls of the ‘bio-filter’,   but the solid fish excretions and other debris can now, for the first time in the aquarium hobby history, be completely evacuated from the aquarium/filter system by an easy instant FLUSH action, hereby removing the pollution at the source and drastically reducing the work-load on the bio-filter with noticeable improvements on the water quality of the concerned aquariums.  

Why would you want to “digest” the fish waste when you can easily remove it instead?

Current filter systems have up to three functions only:    
1) Mechanical filter function: All filters have this feature the purpose of which is to capture all debris and store these inside the filter body. The Bio-pearls in the AquaGenie are the ideal mechanical filter media, super efficient for both capturing and also flushing the aquarium debris and fish excretions.

2) Biological filter function: All filters automatically become biological filters in about 5 weeks after start-up, when the denitrifying bacteria have settled on the media; this is most desirable because it will reduce toxic ammonia and nitrites into almost harmless nitrates. The aim of most bio-filters is to have as much media surface area as possible and the massive 500 sintered glass Bio-pearls of an Aqua Genie filter will give it the highest possible ratio surface area per volume of media of any aquarium filter on the market today.

3) Chemical filter function: Chemical filtration is usually composed of activated charcoal filter replaceable parts to reduce odors and other toxins, or phosphate “sponges”! Aqua Genie filters also use carbon cartridges to give the aquarium water this extra sparkle clean appearance but do not need any phosphate reducing additives when the cause of those phosphates are removed by the flushing of the organic debris from the filter.     

New 4th Filter-flush function: a smarter way at last!

As explained here above, it is now very clear that the addition of a forth filter-flush function to the traditional functions used by other filters is a major evolutionary step that will change the whole perception on fish keeping for the long term benefit of the aquarium hobby & industry.

Common sense that works like magic!