Sponge Filters....anyone With Some Handy Advice?

[Jinkz]

Hi all.

I'm pretty sure that there are literally dozens of you on here who at some time or other have used sponge filters with an airline and air pump or powerhead.

Basically I run a Tetra EX1200 on my 300ltr tang tank but am more than a little paranoid that if anything happens to the filter I won't have any back up so was thinking of at least getting a couple of sponge filters then if the worst came to the worst I could just hook them up the the air pump as a short terms fix.

So with that in mind, can anyone give me any pointers whether it's a good idea, bad idea or plainly stupid idea even...

Cheers

 

[minnnt]

You would need about 5 for your sized tank imo. lol. Could you not run two externals on your current tank? Try and source a cheap second hand one is what i would do.

 

[Jinkz]

I thought about running another external but it's more hassle than it's worth. Would have to start cutting holes in the cabinet to allow for tubes, cables etc and I also don't have the space in the lid for more tubing going into our out of the tank.

I don't mind buying 4 or 5 sponge filters if that's what I would need, they would be used purely as a back up in my external did fail and I have a couple of spare air pumps to run them, so that's not an issue.

Having never bought or run one before though I was hoping someone would have a link to some pretty reasonably priced items

 

[Jinkz]

Seen these and thought that it wasn't a bad deal. Surely 3 of these would be more than enough as an emergency measure....any opinions?

 

[minnnt]

Yeah they look pretty decent imo. I always keep a spare internal filter in the cupboard for emergencies. Would you be running one all the time to keep it matured? One would probably be enough until you sorted a new external or something.

 

[electropunk06]

Yeah they look pretty decent imo. I always keep a spare internal filter in the cupboard for emergencies. Would you be running one all the time to keep it matured? One would probably be enough until you sorted a new external or something.

Couldn't you keep the sponge in the external to keep bacteria on it?

 

[Geoff-]

any media you leave out of the tank is useless in an emergency because there is no bacterial colony on it, it would take too long to establish one in the case of a filter failure.

Honestly your best bet is just to not worry about it. Buy a spare impeller for your current filter as that's the most likely thing to need replacing. An air pump and a couple of air stones will keep some circulation going if the external should fail.

If it fails, run out and buy a new external filter and transfer your old media to the new filter.

If you're really worried about it buy a cheap/second hand external and have it on standby. An external is just a pump, you can stuff your existing media into it if you need to

 

[Jinkz]

Yeah they look pretty decent imo. I always keep a spare internal filter in the cupboard for emergencies. Would you be running one all the time to keep it matured? One would probably be enough until you sorted a new external or something.

Don't have the money at the moment to go out and get another external and there are very few decent second hand ones over here, so that was the reasoning behind getting sponge filters. I had planned on putting one into my 100ltr planted to keep it matured then if the worst came to the worst I could cut that mature sponge into pieces and tie them with fishing line onto new sponge to help that if I needed to put 2 or 3 into my 300ltr in an emergency situation.

Hope that makes sense...it does to me

any media you leave out of the tank is useless in an emergency because there is no bacterial colony on it, it would take too long to establish one in the case of a filter failure.

Honestly your best bet is just to not worry about it. Buy a spare impeller for your current filter as that's the most likely thing to need replacing. An air pump and a couple of air stones will keep some circulation going if the external should fail.

If it fails, run out and buy a new external filter and transfer your old media to the new filter.

If you're really worried about it buy a cheap/second hand external and have it on standby. An external is just a pump, you can stuff your existing media into it if you need to

All sound advice Geoff but I'm out in Israel and as I noted above, the second hand market for filters out here is almost non existent and any that do come on the market are very expensive.

I'll be in Germany and UK on business next month and hopefully will have a chance to pick up a new impeller. They're about double the price out here.

 

[Plecc]

If the worst happens and your filter dies,
get a 2L pop bottle cut a small hole in the side at the bottom for a pump to poke through, cut the top of the bottle off.
Put a pump / powerhead through the small hole in the bottom.
Then fill the bottle with your filter media.
place in the corner of your tank.
and your safe