Super simple 5 minute sponge filter

[jmaster]

hey
well i just used my imaginenation and hav made a see trought on haha
seems to be working well and made the fish alot more livly
thanks

 

[Colonel Mustard]

would it be posible to make this on a larger scale and put it in my community tank?, i was thing of using a bucket

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Wait a second i think you mentioned that you should use a fish food container because it will be ok for the fish, but fish food containers are made from polypropylene.

so as long as whatever plastic you use has the initials PP on the base of the product or on the labeling you'll be fine
hope i helped
btw pp is recyclable so put it in the recycling bin and be good for the enviroment

 

[§tudz]

this is a really good read, I bought some sponge filters last year and now I see I didn't need to

I have a question, would adding small holes or slits to the sides of the container produce a better outcome?

I would use a rotatory kit to cut slit in the sides and that would make them too small for the fry to swim through and get stuck,
as I've used boxed filters before and the fry get through the wholes and get stuck.

 

[The_Dude]

Can you use one with fiddler crabs? Cuz, I was seriously considering getting a few in muh new 5 gallon minibow.

 

[Lhutch]

i dont understand how this works, how does the water get sucked in to be filtered,is there a point to the bubbler, i wanna build one of these but i dont undertsand how it works

 

[Rhykiru]

look on page 5 near the bottom, theres a picture

the point of the bubbler is that it makes bubbles come out which rises and the rising bubbles in turn also pull up the water. Then, if it pulls up the water and out of the tube, then there is a suction.

 

[darkwolf29a]

Thanks for this info.

I have been making these for awhile now, for my girlfriend's bettas.

I branched out, very quickly, from the fish foos container though. I have been using plastic peanut butter jars, spreadable cheese spread jars, mayonaisse...anything. LOL

That is until the other night. My girlfriend built a sorority tank, she's got 6 female bettas plus a bunch of neon tetras together. The flow of a regular filter was just too much. So, I cut the top off of a 32oz Gatorade bottle. LOL The filter is huge, and works like a charm.

 

[charlie4486]

would a container that has a more narrow top be ok? or does it need to be straight.

 

[charlie4486]

Heres mine. In the Picture it's in my 55g but it's going to go into my 10g invert tank.

 

[Eigdoog]

Heres mine. In the Picture it's in my 55g but it's going to go into my 10g invert tank.

Omg thank you for posting this... i have mine coming out of the water at the top and it kinda looks a mess lol but still work, is this best to put under the water all told? (i only have mine in a butket of water for a test!)

 

[*blacksnapemoor*]

so for the air ppump thing i only have a power head an my lfs dont sell the tubing (the air pump one) so if i had a air stone thing ould that worki just pop it down the big tube

 

[dirtbiker250dualsport]

i preety much understand this but i have a few questions. first off soo by putting the slits in the bottom off the tube you are alowing the air out correct but my question is, is that egnough and wouldnt the air just come back up the tube rather than going threw the gravel and sponge as it should

 

[craig855s]

wouldnt the air just come back up the tube rather than going threw the gravel and sponge as it should

That is what is supposed to happen, the air bubbles go up the fat tube taking any water in the tube up with it,this causes water to be drawn into the container through the outer rim (the bit with the gravel and sponge in)

so it goes like the pics shown on page 4 or 5

 

[NeWcS]

I want to make sure I have a good understanding of how this works. So the bubbles(air) going up the bigger tube creates suction which in turn pulls water containing debris etc into the filtering material?

Like this (Hope it's ok I used this picture):

Is this the idea behind this?
If so wouldn't you want to use something with a wide surface area on the top to create more filtered area?

-Jay