Best Aquarium Sponge Filtration | How Sponge Filters Work
Carlrs
Sponge Filtration Overview
Sponge filtration is an often overlooked type of filtration for both
large and small freshwater tanks and bowls, and even ponds or marine
aquariums. Many aquarists look past these filters because of their
simplicity, but therein lies their quality.
I have used these filters for my aquarium maintenance business for 40
plus years with excellent results in freshwater, saltwater and ponds.
It is also noteworthy that the concept is not new, dating back at least
to the early 1960s with the Lustar or Hamburger Mattenfilter Sponges.
(The picture to the left is a Hydro Sponge #1 in a 6 x 6 x 6 Betta tank.)
The best sponge filters (such as the Patented Hydro Sponge Filters)
can be used to compliment another filter, such as a power "hang on back"
(HOB) or canister filter, or even as a stand alone filter, as
per our extensive controlled tests. We found that only fluidized sand
bed filters out perform sponge filters for aerobic bio filtration.
In fact I, and many other aquarium professionals, have used sponge filters as the only source of aquarium filtration.
With this in mind, people purchasing one of the many 'Aquarium Kits' sold at Walmart and elsewhere would be much better off with a superior bio-filtration such as our Sponge Filter Kit instead.
As a bio filter, most premium sponge filters (such as our Premium Hydro Sponge Filter) are vastly superior
to Under Gravel Filters and even superior to comparably rated HOB
filter as per extensive controlled tests performed by us in the 1990s.
This is due to the very porous nature of a sponge filter that allows for
extensive colonization of nitrifying bacteria, assuming your aquarium
or pond is adequately circulated.
Please note that many sponge filters and even patent infringing
"knock offs" made by a variety of brands (such as Lees, Tetra, Hagen,
SF-XY, XY-380, AquaTop) are NOT made of the same patented sponge
material as ATI's patented Hydro sponges. Thus these do not perform nitrification at the same level,
as my tests confirmed in the 1990s, often by a LARGE margin due to a
much more porous design that simply traps more debris and allows more
bacterial colonization.
As well, these patented sponges have a micro design that does not
collapse on itself as readily as other designs. Please read further for a
more in depth explanation of this.
These lower end sponge filters also degrade much quicker, as many users can attest to.
In fact in tests using the XY-380 commonly sold via Amazon, using very similar bio load aquariums, I found the amount of organic debris during the same time period to be almost double for the patented AAP Hydro Sponge Filter, thus demonstrating a MUCH higher capacity!!
The bottom line is there is a reason for the patent and why ATI is constantly legally battling these knock offs for patent infringement when they try to improve.
A couple of the reasons for better test results when compared to an under gravel filter, is that a well designed sponge filter does not have “dead” spots, nor do sponge filters trap decomposing organic mulm in pockets, such as is the case with under gravel filter plates (which can lower KH/pH, increase nitrates, and even promote Aeromonas or Saprolegnia pathogens!)
In addition, these tests showed that these filters were also superior
to most popular power (HOB) filters for bio filtration (such as the
Marineland Bio Wheel).
Bio Wheels are touted for their ability to host beneficial nitrifying
bacteria and yet, this simple sponge filter outperformed them.
Please see this article for more specific information on Bio Wheels:
Bio Wheels: Do they Work?
Commentary/Rebuttle:
A member of the group "badmanstropicalfishDOTcom" made a comment about this article:
"there is no way any appropriately sized sponge filter has more surface area than a properly set up UGF".
As these aquariums were switched out with appropriately sized AAP/ATI Hydro Sponge Filters, not only was there less organic mulm present during cleanings, but these tanks responded better to spikes in bio load too.
Product Resources:
*Patented Hydro Sponge Filters
*Aquarium Sponge Filter Kit
Further References:
*Aquarium, Pond Nitrogen Cycle; Nitrification
*Aquarium Chemistry; Correcting KH/pH
*Saprolegnia; Treatment, Lifecycle in Aquariums