Advice please

[spellbound]

This is the second time this has happened and I'm not sure what to do. I have a sponge filter in the corner of my five gallon seahorse tank. I came in this morning and the tank is very cloudy and stinks very bad. Apparently the stone clogged and the air was not flowing to keep the filter working. When I back flush the air stone starts to function. However, this is the second time this has happened and the first time it happened during the night so I didn't see it not working and we lost a lot of horses. When we used to raise them in Alaska we used a corner filter. Are these still a good way to go, or should I consider another type of sponge filter. This sponge filter is cylindrical and about 5-6" tall. Any suggestions? I'm going to replace the stone for now as I can't leave the store to go out shopping. Please let me know your suggestions on filtration for this setup. I sure hate losing the horses and I'm sure they suffered from this problem. The air pump is working fine.

 

[ann83]

Is this a fry tank or a dwarf tank?

Are you saying that you have an airstone attached to the airline that is running the sponge filter? I'm not even sure how that would work...

 

[spellbound]

I'm sorry. This is a dwarf seahorse tank. The airtone caused the water to be pulled through the sponge and then releases that water out the top. So last night for however long the stone was not working-I left at 7 pm to take our daughter to the emergency room and others closed down the store. When I came in this morning there were dead seahorses and a cloudy tank and the air was not flowing. I back flushed the stone and the air started up again. I removed the live seahorses into a holding tank with clean water and will be changing out this tanks water today. I'm just trying to find a way to prevent this problem in the future. Yesterday was stressful enough with the emergency visit and then to lose almost half of our ponies is really stressing me out today. The stone could have malfunctioned anytime after I fed them around 6 pm.

 

[ann83]

When I run a sponge filter, I attach the airline directly to the sponge filter, without an airstone. If your airstones are clogging, I would definately give that a try. You could also attach a sponge to an HOB filter, and use that to filter your water. Either way, I would put a second airline, with or without airstone, in the tank for extra airation and to serve as "backup" in case anything happens.

 

[spellbound]

Thank you. I'll just remove the airstone. I do have a second airstone in the tank separate from the filter. The airpump to the filter is the only thing it is running. I think I'll get another pump and run only the airstone in the tank too. The other pump runs the brine shrimp hatcheries and the extra stone in the tank. Again, thank you for your advice.

 

[LisaD]

You might consider a slightly larger tank, and run two filters, so you have a back-up. Though I agree with Ann, if you run the air line directly to the filter, you should not have further problems.