Achieving Water Clarity

Perfect water clarity is achievable without water conditioners, mechanical filtration, UV or chemical filtration. All you need is filter media capable of holding a large enough colony of microbes and sufficient water flow.

The embedded photo illustrates what can be accomplished with biological filtration alone. The eye chart in the image is located 10 feet from the camera lens, which is the distance this particular chart was designed to be used at. There is 71/2 feet of water column between the chart and the camera lens.

Can we say Hamburg Mattenfilter?
http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/aquarium-biofiltration/

TwoTankAmin said:

Can we say Hamburg Mattenfilter?
http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/aquarium-biofiltration/

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Thanks for the link. I'd never heard of the Hamburg Mattenfilter before. Personally, I would never use the design illustrated on that website - it's just too ugly. Also, using an air pump to achieve water flow simply isn't going to be sufficient unless you have a huge amount of surface area. Even undergravel filters, which are essentially the same thing, are much more efficient when used with a powerhead.

I'm using canister filters filled with foam. This way I not only achieve very efficient biofiltration because of very good water flow (roughly 3X water volume/hour), but I also get excellent oxygenation from surface agitation.

Did you look in depth? You can make corner filter in black foam the same as you might see in plastic use to create overflow intakes. Black foam looks no worse than a black background.

Next, the whole idea behind the Mattens is big surface and most importantly lots of volume. I breed and grow very expensive plecos in tanks with Mattenfilters. and or Poret foam cubefilters. Air power is just fine for them. Flow rates are for filtration are not supposed to be great. However, most folks use their filters for more than housing media where bacteria live. They oxygenate the water with their return flow, they circulate water from the same.

The most effective canister I have out of three is the one filled entirely with the same foam I use for my Mattens and cubes. The average time between needed cleanings on this filter is 3.5 years, maybe a tad more. Many of my Mattens have never been cleaned and they have been going for years. All I do during weekly maint. is to run a hose across the surfarce to remove the amount of gunk about to pass through the foam. On a 33 long I have to spend almost 60 seconds doing this. As for the cubefilters I replaced most of my ATI sponges. I used to rinse the ATIs weekly but the Porret is more like 3 - 4 weeks and often more on the bigger sized ones.

I love Poret foam, it is the best media I have found in almost 23 years of keeping fish. My cleanest and healthiest tanks use it almost exclusively. But if you want to see it in use in a massive Discus operation, check out this vid. The interesting part is to see the filter media Discus Hans uses for his 100s+ discus tanks. You first see the media at about 1:10 and he discusses it more later.

Han's filtration system is brilliant. A lot of plumbing, but the simplicity of the process is absolutely brilliant.

While I understand your comment about using the Mattens behind a "background", that would take up a lot of useful space. Also, just to note, Poret foam is just reticulated foam. Any reticulated foam, assuming proper pore size, will work just as well.

As an aside, if I was to use something other than canisters, I'd probably go with an undergravel filter. Just not a big fan of sumps, though I understand their advantages.

Anyway, thanks for the info. It's refreshing to hear from someone who isn't gaga for ceramic rings, etc. etc. It's unbelievable how much time and money people waste as a result of misleading advertising and simple ignorance.

Sponges are mechanical filtration though (as well as containing nitrifying bacteria)? If you had a canister full of ceramic rings you could claim you have no mechanical filtration, but a canister full of sponge, whilst pretty much what I do, is not a system with no mechanical filtration.

myrtle said:

Sponges are mechanical filtration though (as well as containing nitrifying bacteria)? If you had a canister full of ceramic rings you could claim you have no mechanical filtration, but a canister full of sponge, whilst pretty much what I do, is not a system with no mechanical filtration.

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Most people use "floss" or very fine porosity foam for mechanical filtration. I guarantee you if you use foam with a porosity of 30 ppi or greater you will not get clear water for several weeks, or months. Hence, it's not mechanical filtration.

All sponges are mechanical filtration! Just because the particle size they filter out is larger than that filtered out by filter floss doesn't stop it being mechanical filtration. Particulate is trapped mechanically within the sponge, hence mechanical filtration.
Of course, if the foam you use is coarse, it'll only filter out the larger particles, but its still mechanical filtration.

Poret is not just a reticulated foam. ATI sponges are reticulated and I used both the ATI pre-filters and sponge filters. The foam degraded over time and I basically rinsed both of these things every week. I could miss a week at most because after that they become so clogged they collapse and almost no water goes through them. Over time these sponge degrade and do need replacing.

So far I have not had to replace anything Poret. But my longest running stuff is just over 9 years. As for the cubefilters I would guess I clean them every 4 weeks on average. I have one 5x5 tower filter I got the 2nd week of Jan this year, I have rinsed it once so far.

I use mostly 20 ppi. I use it in many of my AquaClears as well. I make prefilters out of the 10ppi and use it or 20 ppi for tank dividers as well.

Mechanical filtration is for non-organic waste. Organic waste will mmostly be consimed in proper filter media. The things mechanical media traps will clog it sooner or later, usually sooner, and then water flow stops. It has to be cleaned. With large semi-rigid Poret foam whith well define pore sizes. Most of the organic waste that might be trapped in lesser size and quality media is consumed in my filters.

In the space behind my Mattens I get an accumulation of what is best described as silt. I such this out weekly in about 30 seconds. I suck off the from of the foam which takes about 60 seconds. So under two minutes to clean the filtration. Sometimes i miss a week. So if I clean a Matten like this 48 times a year it is about 1.5 hours. It takes me about that to pull and clean my canister twice a year and they do not keep the water as clear as the Mattens and cubefilters.

In a nutshell, the key to filtration is biological not mechanical. My clearest water in the tanks with my messiest fish and heaviest stocking because of the volume of Poret foam used in them.

However, Poret is not cheap and this is a consideration. Folks have to use what they prefer as well as what can be afforded. I would love to have more expensive stuff than I do, but I use what I know will work well. I also like to standardize. I have only AquaClear hang-ons save for one Tetra Whisper mini on my only 5.5 gal tank. I still have ATI pre-filters on my 3 canisters, 3 powerheads and my lone AC 500. Most of the rest have Poret foam pre-filters.

I am also a bit biased because I know Dr. Tanner who owns Swiss Tropicals. I actually "met" him via Email when I began exhanging these with him relative to the debate about Archaea v.s. Bacteria in aquariums doing ammonia oxidation. It was only after that when I began using the Poret. Stephan (Dr. T) is usually at the major weekend fish events in the vendor room. So I see him at those I attend and usually spend some time getting questions answered. He was very helpful as I ramped up my use of Poret.

T

TwoTankAmin said:

In a nutshell, the key to filtration is biological not mechanical. My clearest water in the tanks with my messiest fish and heaviest stocking because of the volume of Poret foam used in them.

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This is very true for fish/fauna only tanks or those with fake plants/decor, but for a heavily planted tank (by heavily planted, I mean almost zero visible substrate such as the image below) with a low bioload, mechanical filtration and water changes only are sufficient as much of the nitrifying bacteria lives in the substrate and the heavy plant mass will utilise all available waste products

I have tanks with excellent clarity using air driven sponge filters, powerfilters, canisters, - pretty well all options. Clarity has never been a problem with any system I've used. I even have a few ceramic rings that were free with old power filters in plastic corner boxes, and the water is fine.

I'm a bit bemused by the postings, as I've never even considered maintaining clarity to be an issue.

Most of the time it's what you can't see that's problematic anyway. After all,acid rain creates beautifully clear, yet totally dead, bodies of water. Clarity doesn't equal health.

myrtle said:

All sponges are mechanical filtration! Just because the particle size they filter out is larger than that filtered out by filter floss doesn't stop it being mechanical filtration. Particulate is trapped mechanically within the sponge, hence mechanical filtration.
Of course, if the foam you use is coarse, it'll only filter out the larger particles, but its still mechanical filtration.

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Like I said, some people like to pick nits.

GaryE said:

I'm a bit bemused by the postings, as I've never even considered maintaining clarity to be an issue.

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You should take a look at some of the aquariums being displayed on Youtube. In any case, the most likely reason you don't consider water clarity an issue is because you spend all your time viewing the aquarium from the front. That's typically 24" or less of water column. If you look in from the end, it won't look so clear. This is especially true if the aquarium is longer than 4'.

In any case, some people simply aren't fussy about clarity. Check out some of the videos on Youtube. Lastly, most people who are concerned with water clarity use a combination of UV, chemical and mechanical filtration to achieve it. Hence my post, stating that all of that is unnecessary.

TwoTankAmin said:

Poret is not just a reticulated foam. ATI sponges are reticulated and I used both the ATI pre-filters and sponge filters. The foam degraded over time and I basically rinsed both of these things every week.

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All I can say is the ATI sponges must be crap. I've had very good success using unbranded sheets of foam that I cut myself.

Anyway, the point of my post was that biofiltration is all that is really required for healthy water. You seem to be the only person here that agrees, or isn't fussing over linguistic technicalities. And I absolutely agree with you that there's nothing better than foam filter media for biofiltration.