Will my sponge filter work.

[Tim Monteverde]

Hey I'm just wondering, can you use a sponge filter with a water pump. I've already got a water pump spare big enough for the tank I'm gonna set up, I'm thinking about picking up just a simple sponge filter and pulling water through the sponge filter using the water pump. Will this work it's just I can't see many people doing this or much info on this, eveyone seems to always use air pumps.

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Internal power filter have a water pump with a sponge filter. Take your pump into a pet shop and find a filter to fit over the intake. If the filter doesn't have a long intake strainer, then you might need to find one for a different brand to stop the filter being sucked into the strainer and potentially blocking it up.

 

[DrRob]

Does this work? Yes.

How well it works depends on flow and sponge. Large sponges, with fine texture with slow flow make excellent biofilters (like the hamburg mattenfilters), high flow rates turn more towards mechanical filters, and will need cleaning more often, but will be at least some biofilter unless the flow is insane (at which point, as Colin says, they'll probably find their way into the intake anyway). Most internal filters sit somewhere in the middle of this.