ati hydro sponge V

[andruboz]

i picked up one of these to be my 4th filter on a 125g. the 125g currently has: 2 emperor 400's, and a penguin 330. i'm going to swap the 330 for my magnum 350, but ive just been too lazy to cut the holes in the stand for routing the tubing.

i've seen these sponge filters used a lot at shows and lfs's. does anybody here use them? how long does that sponge last? does it matter how high you set the air flow on it? i want it to be effective without getting too noisy.

i also figured this would be the easiest filter to keep running in the event of a power outage. [power inverter plugged into pickup cig. lighter with one air pump running sponges in my main 4 tanks. ]

[blitzen25bm]

i dont have any hydros but i make my own with AC500 sponges and i power them with powerheads. they work great all i have in my 60 gallon is one of those filters. the sponge should last years unless you have cichlids or something always picking at it. the higher you have the pump on the more water you will have going into the sponge. it will take a while for all the bacteria to get built up in the sponge though

[DIYMatt]

I, too, make my own with AC sponges and powerheads, they work great. I think this may be your best option beacuse you just have to plug the powerhead into wherever you have the other power filters plugged into. Also, then it should be almost silent. Just stick to smaller powerheads. Some people say that if the water is going to fast through the sponge the bacteria can't colonize it. I really don't know for sure. A powerhead shouldn't use that much more electricity than an air pump.


[power inverter plugged into pickup cig. lighter with one air pump running sponges in my main 4 tanks. ]

Hmmm???? Do you drive the pickup into the house or are the tanks outside? :D What if you are at Home Depot when the power goes out? Do have a backup vehicle to backup your backup power system?:p Just kidding, I don't think I am reading this right please clarify.

Personally, I use the cheapest computer backup power supply I could find($89) on the tank I am worried about. I don't know how well it works, never been tested. But, my tanks get checked on least daily when I am out of town, so I am really not that worried about power outages. I do keep a couple of battery powered air pumps on hand just in case the power goes out for a long time.

[blitzen25bm]

my pump is flowing atleast 300GPH for 1 AC500 sponge and its fine