sponge filter ignorance

So I picked up a sponge filter about a week ago, and put it in my 5gal for my bettas. It is constantly pushing air out through the top of the device. I'm not sure if it is even circulating through the sponge or not, and I am worried that I may have bought a crappy looking ornament for my tank.

the brand was all in Asian lettering, and I do not have the box anymore. I will try to post a video later today to show you.

When air bubbles are released at the bottom of a sponge filter lifter tube they create a vacuum as they rise, pulling water through the sponge. They don't give you a ton of flow, but they do work. I have many cheap sponge filters and they all work as they're supposed to - the design is pretty hard to screw up.

Lately I buy Swiss Tropicals 4" cube filters for my tanks with curved "jet lifters". These point the exiting water and bubbles horizontally so you can actually see the water pushing things around. It's not as easy to see the circulation when they're pointed straight up, but it's there.

8 of my 12 tanks are sponge-filtered and of those 8 7 of them are air-driven and 1 is power-head driven. They're great for shrimp, fry, and filtration en-masse.

+1

The rising bubbles create a "convection current" in the tube and entrain and pull water through the sponge and up the tube with the bubbles.

Not exactly... convection currents occur due to heat differences. In this case there are mass and pressure differentials at work.

i love sponge filters. 1 sponge should filter a 5 gal easily. give it a chance.

Squeeze your sponge filter after a couple of months and you'll see all the gunk it sucks up. =)

binbin9 wrote:Squeeze your sponge filter after a couple of months and you'll see all the gunk it sucks up. =)

I'd amend that to weeks

So is it wise to have the water line ABOVE the tube at the top, or below it?

I know its too early for the thing to work, but I already have my betta male and female divided in the tank, so they can breed in 2-4 weeks. But I'd rather make sure that the sponge filter was working properly so that it can be ready for the fry when they come. The hardest part to keeping the fry alive is water quality. The tank usually gets filthy with just two bettas in there, and by the time the eggs are laid, I find it close to impossible to change the water in the tank.

On a side note, and related to the paragraph above, does anyone know where to buy a good low-impact siphon, preferably a hand pump one, none of the "shake it up and down and stress the hell out of your fish" types. Lol

Water level above the intake on your sponge filter.

Shake it up and down? Why are you doing this? All you have to do is stick the siphon end into the tank, submerse it in the tank, turn it upward so that the siphon tube fills up with water, once the water starts flowing down the tube and the level of water in the siphon part starts lowering, then stick the siphon tube back into the water, and your done, water should be flowing.

I have watched that method done before as well, it still not ideal for what I need. The siphon part is just as big as the tank, meaning I would still disturb the water dramatically, and still suck up fry by just submerging it. It may work on 10gal tank, but not quite what I need. Also, my tank, as stated, is divided in half, which means I wouldn't even be able to fit the siphon length wise in the tank. Granted, I can remove it fairly easily.

Petsmart has a nice small one with a siphon squeeze thing to do just what your asking.

CrazedAce wrote:So is it wise to have the water line ABOVE the tube at the top, or below it?

I know its too early for the thing to work, but I already have my betta male and female divided in the tank, so they can breed in 2-4 weeks. But I'd rather make sure that the sponge filter was working properly so that it can be ready for the fry when they come. The hardest part to keeping the fry alive is water quality. The tank usually gets filthy with just two bettas in there, and by the time the eggs are laid, I find it close to impossible to change the water in the tank.

On a side note, and related to the paragraph above, does anyone know where to buy a good low-impact siphon, preferably a hand pump one, none of the "shake it up and down and stress the hell out of your fish" types. Lol

I've heard of folks running their sponge filters both ways - with the lifter tube top above the water line and below it. You have to be careful with it above the water line because if the water level drops too much then the air won't be powerful enough to clear the top of the tube. Personally, I run mine with the water above the top of the outlet most of the time.

Seed the tank with gunk from an active filter and it should "work" just fine.

If you're changing water on a small tank you could always use an airline with a syringe to prime it. I do this with some of my tanks from time to time. It'll take a bigger syringe for a bigger siphon tube of course Maybe something like this:

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Turkey baster, it'll take you time but you can target suck poo out and hopefully avoid your fry.

Turkey baster... Good idea. Syringe is good too, I'll probably try out both methods. Thanks!

hey there, when i was breeding bettas back in the day, water changes became VERY difficult. unfortunately the babies are soooooooooo super tiny that theyd just end up lost. as for the water change issue id suggest doing like 5-6 tiny water changes. drain an inch fill an inch etc. if your serious about keep the fry you really ought to consider some kind of tumbler like device to make sure you get good survival rates. within a matter of days my old pair would always lose most if not all the fry.

A tumbler device? Please explain.

I've had a few spawns occur, but have only been able to keep 2 of the fry alive. The only way I was able to do so, was by moving the fry into a 10gal heavily planted tank that had about 2 dozen gold gourami fry that hatched maybe a couple days before. One of the hardest fish I've ever tried to breed, but I love how docile they are. I can usually pet them when I'm messing around in the tanks.

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just give youtube a looksie to get the general idea, i personally would just buy one as theyre pretty cheap already. it actually seems like the kinda thing cory of the new fish co op store would have, or be able to get in for you.

That is ingenious! I'm assuming that this does not effect the health of the fish in a negative way. Looks pretty safe, but thought I'd ask. Will be looking into it for sure.

Anthraxx wrote:hey there, when i was breeding bettas back in the day, water changes became VERY difficult. unfortunately the babies are soooooooooo super tiny that theyd just end up lost. as for the water change issue id suggest doing like 5-6 tiny water changes. drain an inch fill an inch etc. if your serious about keep the fry you really ought to consider some kind of tumbler like device to make sure you get good survival rates. within a matter of days my old pair would always lose most if not all the fry.

great idea.

When did you start moving the fry into the tumbler? Would freshly laid eggs work in a setup like this?

CrazedAce... Don't forget, the sponge filter works best when it's ''dirty''. It's a veritable bed of bacteria, therefore, it is your sewage treatment plant inside your tank. So when you squeeze it to clean it out, don't get it perfectly clean. Leave some gunk...!!!!

i myself have never used a tumbler, and tbh i never bothered with trying to rear the betta fry, when i finally tore down the tank to sell it i ended up finding half a dozen rice sized babies, a cpl larger ones too. a tumbler would be good for either right after they hatch or once you know theyve all been fertilized. im not sure of the gestation period for bettas so you may want to look that up and do it as late as you can (to make sure any that do fungus arent mixed in with the fry)

So its been a total of three weeks now, and the sponge filter looks like it's still brand new, no "gunk" comes out when I squeeze it. I am highly doubting that it is working properly, and though you said, pbmax, that it is hard to screw up the design, it appears this company did. Will not be buying sponge filters from lfs ever again. What's the best design? The best place to order? I prefer cheapest of course, but I prefer ones that work. Lol

Just because a whole bunch of crap doesn't come out doesn't mean that it's not working. Got a link to the one you bought or a photo? What are you running it with - air or a powerhead? If air, how big is the pump?

Running it with an air pump. Powering a 5gal (only 6-7" of water) and a 10gal. I can't remember the brand, only that it had more Asian lettering than English... I only have internet access on my phone or the library, and I have no gas, and very little data. Forum site = less data and talking to other fish fiends, which is fun to see what other hobbyists do lol

I only have the water covering the sponge, if that could cause a problem or not due to lack of pressure? Idk, I'll try to stay optimistic

Do you mean that the lifter tube is protruding from the water? Or did you remove the tube?

madness wrote:Water level above the intake on your sponge filter.

Shake it up and down? Why are you doing this? All you have to do is stick the siphon end into the tank, submerse it in the tank, turn it upward so that the siphon tube fills up with water, once the water starts flowing down the tube and the level of water in the siphon part starts lowering, then stick the siphon tube back into the water, and your done, water should be flowing.

scaring the crap outta fish aside, i always found those shake the captive ball valves to be lacking....nothing so convieniet as putting one end in the tank and sucking on the other...

as for the occaisional mouthfull of water...well...dont start at the gravel! im a hiker, i spent 20 yrs in the army..im used to austere conditions, so a mouthful of aquarium water? bring it!

Still ignorant in some areas, and I tried searching for this with no luck; one of my cichlids (pundamilia nyererei) has ich and I plan to move him into a hospital tank that is currently setup to be a betta tank. It has sponge filter in it, though I am planning to use aquarium salt to help get rid of the ich. Should I remove the filter and just put an airstone? Will the salt kill the bacteria on the filter? I will also be adding melafix to the tank, as he has been going at it with the younger male and has damaged fins.