Aquarium

Claim 1

In an aquarium having an aquarium bed in the form of gravel within a water retaining tank defined by a bottom wall, and opposed side and end walls, an aquarium drain and filter structure including means for effecting substantially continuous filtration and aeration and comprising: (a) a planar support member positioned within an aquarium tank and having a plurality of apertures therein for flow of water and debris therethrough, said support member having opposite side and end edges: (b) means within the aquarium tank for positioning said support member above a bottom wall of the aquarium tank and with the support member end edges in engagement with the aquarium tank end walls and with one side edge in engagement with said bottom wall and one side wall of the aquarium tank and the other side edge of the support member positioned above the aquarium tank bottom wall thereby positioning said support member in inclined relation to said bottom wall and defining a lower water receiving compartment between the aquarium tank bottom wall and said support member, said lower water receiving compartment having its greatest height adjacent said other side wall; (c) a plurality of drain members above and in engagement with said support member and each in engagement with at least one adjacent drain member and each having at least one flow passage extending downwardly therethrough, each of the flow passages having an inlet end and an outlet end above said support member; (d) foraminous means overlying said drain members for covering the inlet end of each of said flow passages, said foraminous means having openings smaller than the particle size of the gravel forming the aquarium bed for supporting the aquarium bed on the foraminous means and permitting movement of water and debris therethrough toward the lower water receiving compartment; (e) means having passages communicating the area of greatest heighth of the water receiving compartment with the aquarium tank above said aquarium bed; (f) means communicating with said passages adjacent the water receiving compartment for discharging air bubbles and flow thereof toward an upper surface of water within the aquarium tank; (g) at least one valve controlled flow member communicating with the lower water receiving compartment in spaced relation to said side and end walls for flow of drain water and debris therefrom; and (h) a filter device having communication with said valve controlled flow member and capable of removing debris from aquarium water and including a pump means having said valve controlled flow member connected thereto for moving water and debris through said filter device and discharging said filtered water adjacent the upper surface of water within the aquarium tank.