An Idea.

[Shaucid]

I got an idea a little while ago. Something that I think would help with setting up aquariums in the future, making a fishroom, or even setting up a fish store. A cycled sponge filter factory, here's how I believe it'd work.

Step 1: Get a large tank big enough for a large waste producing fish such as an oscar, but still has enough room for multiple sponge filters.

Step 2: Set up the tank bare and cycle the main powerful "Mother" filter.

Step 3: After doing the fishless cycle, put your large waste producing fish in the tank.

Step 4: Put as many sponge filters as you can fit or need in the tank, then get a powerful air pump with a multi-line valve and tubing plus some airstones.

In theory, the fish will produce a lot of waste which will cycle the sponge filters. The "mother" filter will keep ammonia levels safe for the fish. When one of the sponge filters is cycled, move it to a new tank where you need it and then replace it with a new filter if needed. So you then have a cycled filter factory tank.

This is just an idea, and I'm not completely sure it works well.

-Shaucid

 

[techen]

The thing is, fish stores use one filter to handle a lot of tanks. So you really don't need to be grabbing multiple sponge filters. You can also cut sponges in half and load half into each tank until there both cycled and keep this up as much as you want. But I don't see much of a benefit of having a sponge factory

 

[snazy]

Why putting an oscar? Load the tank with sponge filters and dose up ammonia as often as it needs and as much as it can eventually handle, a bit of experimenting is needed here with the amount. The tank and sponges will cycle eventually, you can even increase the amount of ammonia to make sure all sponges are actually cycled as normally there'll be just enough bacteria to handle the current bioload. If not using fish, then the risk of the sponges being disease carries is little to none and you can use them eventually in any tank or sell them

 

[Mikey1]

In theory, the fish will produce a lot of waste which will cycle the sponge filters.

no, it wont....

the "mother filter" will be doing all the work...

bacteria will not form in the other filters unless you increase the fish waste

 

[Tuxyu3]

Bacteria would in fact eventually form in all the filters whether you increase waste or not, the bacteria should eventually even out as bacteria is constantly dying, leaving space for new bacteria (some of which will take residence in the sponge filters).

Seems pretty pointless and impractical to me, where would you keep this giant tank? Surely it would be difficult to get the sponges out? Not to mention the sponges won't fit the design of many filters. Even if this idea was useful to somebody why take the time to feed and care for the fish instead of just dosing ammonia and why not just have one large filter where the media can be trimmed off?

 

[CezzaXV]

The bacteria will in all likelihood spread themselves out evenly between all the filters present in the tank. The "mother" filter may be doing the work initially, but after not too long they'll spread themselves out. If you had say three filters plus the mother filter, you'd be removing 25% of the bacteria when you remove any one of them, whether it's the mother filter or not. This isn't a big deal really, as the bacteria multiply pretty fast and will soon catch up to deal with the waste again, but the others are right. It would be far more efficient to forget that idea and if you need a new filter, fill it with media from an established filter. You can safely remove up to a third of the media from a filter without affecting your tank - that's how fast they grow.