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Hello and Questions

365 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  PlantedRich, 
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Hello all!


I am new to the forums as well as planted tanks. For the last few months I have been experimenting with a few plants in a 5 gal and have recently purchased a couple of 10 gal tanks to build over time. In a few weeks I will be setting up one of the 10 gal and I had a question regarding filtration. I have been looking at a wide variety and would like to know what everyone's thoughts were on sponge filters for a 10 gal planted tank. I only plan on putting shrimp in there or a few (less than 7) neons along with a Siamese Algae Eater wondered if a sponge filter would be enough. Does anyone run just sponge filters on low bio load tanks? Also, can I put plants in front of the sponge to hide it or will that create filtration issues?




Thanks in advance.
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Alf2Frankie
Welcome! Absolutely you can use a sponge filter, there are plenty of different filters available on amazon or you can DIY your own. Sponge filters are considered one of the best filters to use for breeding shrimp as the shrimplets will not get sucked up into the filtration system. At the same time, it provides extra grazing surface for the shrimp. Here is an article you may find helpful - Master of the sponge filter | Windsor and Essex County Aquarium Forum
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PlantedRich
Alf2Frankie said:
Welcome! Absolutely you can use a sponge filter, there are plenty of different filters available on amazon or you can DIY your own. Sponge filters are considered one of the best filters to use for breeding shrimp as the shrimplets will not get sucked up into the filtration system. At the same time, it provides extra grazing surface for the shrimp. Here is an article you may find helpful - Master of the sponge filter | Windsor and Essex County Aquarium Forum
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Fully agree with this! Sponge filters are good!
But then if I were in a situation where the air pump was not a noise problem, I might also look at building a simple "mattenfilter" setup.
Once past the noise, the larger area of sponge media on the mattenfilter does some really nice things. One downside of sponge filters is that there is reasonably low surface are and it can get blocked pretty quick. But the mattenfilter can have as much surface area as you want to devote to it. In theory it is just a way to move water through a flat sponge, floss or whatever media by tanking water from the backside and pumping/moving it to the front side.
I like the idea of a frame press fit along one whole end, with a pump behind to draw water through and out over the top to the other end of the tank. Lots more media surface so that cleaning is not needed very often?
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