Bio Sponge Filter Made Out Of?

Having adequate filtration is a cardinal component to keeping your water make clean, both aesthetically and for the health of your fish. You don't accept to spend a lot of money to become a lot more functioning out of your existing filters. Using some of these DIY aquarium filter hacks, I've been able to keep very high stocking levels in my planted tanks, which allows me to grow out more than fish. I've had l+ guppies growing out happily in a well-filtered 20 gallon aquarium. Using cheap materials you can double or triple the filtering capacity of whatsoever filter (although I'll focus primarily on hang on back (HOB) filters here).

Bank check out my review of the best HOB filters on the market

Beginning, a very quick summary of the iii types of filtration.

1. Mechanical filtration is when a textile catches debris as water passes through information technology.

1. Biological filtration is the process of bacteria that have colonized the filter media converting toxic ammonia from fish waste into less toxic nitrites, and and then into nitrates. Nitrifying bacteria tin can only live on surfaces in an aquarium, so the all-time biological media has a very loftier surface area. This is the fundamental to supporting high bio-loads.

Chemical filtration is the process of using a chemical to absorb or neutralize toxic ammonia, heavy metals, or medications in the aquarium. Activated charcoal is the well-nigh common instance. I don't employ chemic filtration in any of my tanks unless I am trying to remove a medication or other contaminant, so that will not be a office of this discussion.

Hack # 1: Intake Sponges

intake sponges - DIY Aquarium Filter Hacks — intake sponges

Intake sponges tin be purchased in large packs online, and are sometimes fifty-fifty carried in the mega-mart pet stores. These are the easiest way to get more filtering capacity out of any filter. I accept an intake sponge on every single filter in my fish room. Buying in bulk each sponge toll me nether $3. They slide over the cease of the intake stem so that water must pass through the sponge before entering the filter. This provides several benefits.

Starting time, the sponge acts equally a mechanical barrier that traps larger debris before it enters the filter. Sponges can be hands cleaned by squeezing them out in a container of old h2o from the aquarium. This keeps fish waste, excess nutrient, and plant debris from entering your filter and potentially bottleneck upward the impeller or gathering in the bottom.

Second, the intake sponge provides biological filtration due to its loftier surface area and the abiding flow of water moving through information technology. Most of the commonly sold HOB filters come with a single sparse sponge to act as the biological stage. Calculation an intake sponge tin can instantly double your biological filtering chapters!

Third, if you're a shrimp keeper like me, or you brood and raise young fish, the intake sponge is an absolute necessity. Shrimp can graze on the biofilm and droppings that gets caught by the sponge, and even very small fry won't exist sucked up into the filter to run into their demise. The photo below shows the intake on a breeder box used in my guppy rearing tank, which as well houses a thriving colony of neocaridina shrimp.

Hack # two: Water Polishing Filter Floss

For several years I routinely purchased OEM filter pad replacements, not realizing there was a cheaper, superior, more than customizable solution bachelor.

What is this water polishing panacea? Polyester quilt batting - AKA filter floss. This stuff is bachelor all over. Google information technology. You can buy a huge ringlet for roughly $20 that will last a long, long time. Cut into strips 6" wide by 24" long, a 72" 10 90" roll will give you 45 filter floss refills at a cost of under 50 cents each.

I take quilt batting and cut information technology into strips most 6" wide and two anxiety long, then wrap it effectually the filter pad frame that came with my HOB filter. This stuff catches almost all of the tiny particles that the intake sponge didn't capture. The result is crystal clear water. I change information technology out every two weeks, or when it'south brown and gunked up.

You tin as well take Poly-fil - which is the same fabric as polyester quilt batting, just loose fibers instead of a ringlet - and stuff it into a sump or canister filter. Merely utilise it to replace whatever disposable filter pads you are currently buying, or to supplement your existing media. The of import affair to keep in mind with either quilt batting or the loose poly material is that it has to be 100% polyester and non treated with any chemicals in club to safely be used in a filter.

Hack # 3: More Media

So past now yous're seeing that the more media (or surface expanse) y'all can get into your filter, the more beneficial bacteria information technology tin can support, and the more filtering capacity you're going to have. A keen exercise is to cram an extra sponge, a handbag of bio-rings, or bio balls into ane of your cycled filters if you have unused infinite. I go on an actress sponge in one of my HOBs, so that I accept a cycled sponge on hand if I want to gear up some other tank (which is inevitable). In the photo below, you lot can encounter I have an extra aquaclear sponge stuffed into the empty space on the correct side of one of my HOB filters. This infinite would otherwise be left empty. Instead I've increased my filter's biological capacity.

HOB Filter with quilt batting and extra sponge

Walking through a pet store looking at the price tags on filter "refills" can be discouraging, but it's important to note that biological media such as sponges and ceramic rings almost never need to be replaced. Many manufacturers have literature that tells you to discard your bio media after ii-iii months and supersede it. This is purely a scheme to increase sales. Ceramic rings and sponges do not go bad, all you have to practice is rinse them out in aquarium h2o to clean them. The only media that needs to be replaced regularly is filter floss and chemical media such every bit charcoal. In the filter I showed in a higher place, the but thing I replace is the polyester batting at a cost of roughly $1 a month. The sponges take been in use for over a year and will final several more than.

Hack # 4: Breeder Box Filter

You tin take an air driven breeder box and plough it into a customized HOB filter that too acts a quarantine / breeder box. By attaching a sponge to the intake of a breeder box, you've already created a sponge filter. You can have this even further by filling the breeder box all the way up with whatever media yous want. The great thing nigh breeder boxes is they increase your total water volume and tin can hold plants, gravel, bio media, and fish. In my instance I use the intake sponge and a bag of biomax rings plus some live plants in the box to add together biological filtration while using it for breeding or quarantine.

If you take a large breeder box with vertical dividers, yous tin can create a two or three stage HOB filter that is customized to your needs. Yous could fifty-fifty employ 1 side every bit a quarantine and fill the other up with media.

Keep in mind that while all of these hacks volition better your filter's ability to turn ammonia into nitrate, all those nitrates aren't going anywhere unless you:

A) Perform regular water changes, or

B) Keep plenty of live plants to soak up those nitrates.

Links to purchase items referenced in this postal service on Amazon: