Making a sponge filter
- Thread starter twizted1
- Start date
It doesn't take much air to make the water circulate. Without anything moving the water, I do notice a difference in temp between the top and the bottom of a tank. If you have a long shallow tank like a 20L you may want two of them. Most fry don't like being tossed around like leaves in a whirlwind, and I'd expect they'd burn up too much energy and not be able to eat.
Another option: If you've got some old air-driven inside box filters, you can fill the box with gravel- or even stuff foam in there. That gets you an easy-to-clean undergravel filter in a bare-bottom tank. I always seem to pick up those filters when I buy a used tank for a couple bucks.
Another option: If you've got some old air-driven inside box filters, you can fill the box with gravel- or even stuff foam in there. That gets you an easy-to-clean undergravel filter in a bare-bottom tank. I always seem to pick up those filters when I buy a used tank for a couple bucks.
I made a good sponge filter fo fry using a 12 inch straight piece of 1/4 inch PVC pipe, filter sponge (replacement sponge for an AquaClear 110 filter), a small air stone, and some airline tubing. Oh! And some styrofoam to plug the bottom of the PVC pipe.
Drill holes on the bottom of the PVC pipe on all sides as far as the filter sponge will cover (on mine it was 4 inches).
Push some styrofoam into the bottom of the PVC pipe to stop air flow (I secured it with aquarium silicone).
Cut a hole in the filter sponge big enough so that the PVC pipe will fit inside (but not bigger than the pipe--its better for it to be too small than too big).
Insert the PVC pipe into the sponge until the bottom of the pipe is visible on the bottom of the sponge.
Connect the airstone to the airline tubing.
Insert the airstone and tubing into the PVC pipe until it feels like it is on the bottom.
Plug it into the air.
Enjoy!
It worked great for me. The only thing that I found with this filter is that it needed to be weighted down until it became saturated with water. It kept trying to float to the surface.
Drill holes on the bottom of the PVC pipe on all sides as far as the filter sponge will cover (on mine it was 4 inches).
Push some styrofoam into the bottom of the PVC pipe to stop air flow (I secured it with aquarium silicone).
Cut a hole in the filter sponge big enough so that the PVC pipe will fit inside (but not bigger than the pipe--its better for it to be too small than too big).
Insert the PVC pipe into the sponge until the bottom of the pipe is visible on the bottom of the sponge.
Connect the airstone to the airline tubing.
Insert the airstone and tubing into the PVC pipe until it feels like it is on the bottom.
Plug it into the air.
Enjoy!
It worked great for me. The only thing that I found with this filter is that it needed to be weighted down until it became saturated with water. It kept trying to float to the surface.
