Filter sponges - good or bad?

[iwishtofish]

My Ehiem 1250 pump came with a filter sponge that is installed around the intake area. I decided to use it initially since my water was stirred up after filling my tank. Also, my overflow box came with a sponge-type filter that is planted on top of the drain standpipe.

Should I should keep these items there? My water is clear now, but still has detritus swirling in the flow. I have heard that these things can become biological filters/nitrate traps. Should I leave them there and clean them weekly, or should I ditch them? Thanks for the help!

 

[Bebo77]

just clean them out every week....

 

[papagimp]

You could go either way with those. Personally, I like having at the very least, some form of strainer or sponge on the intake for my pumps, keeps out the snails and whatnot (first time I took a strainer off my pump, a baby molly jumped in there and got spread around my tank nicely, everyone got a meal but he wasn't a feeder molly by any means) The sponge on the standpipe for the overflow, I removed that on mine, had to since it's the only way I could get the thing to be a little quieter. Both of these are means of mechanical filtering, and since I advocate at least 1 form of mechanical filtering for any system, I'd keep one of em going, unless of course you have a HOB powerfilter or canister or other means of mechanical filtering going on.

 

[iwishtofish]

Thank you for the advice. I would like to keep at least one of the two to filter dust and debris from the water column. The one on my overflow looks like it would be the more effective of the two, but I am also experiencing noise problems, so it may have to go.

 

[ccoons43]

I had used a sponge in my overflow and cleaned it every few days. I decided to remove it for a while "just to see" and have noticed that I have less of an algae problem. the detritus just lands on the bottom of my sump and i vacum it out with my water changes.

 

[kh6sat]

They're good to have. Be sure to clean it regularly.

 

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10187357#post10187357 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iwishtofish
Thank you for the advice. I would like to keep at least one of the two to filter dust and debris from the water column. The one on my overflow looks like it would be the more effective of the two, but I am also experiencing noise problems, so it may have to go.

Just FYI, the benefit to having the sponge on the overflow is that all the water going into the overflow box is from the surface. Surface water is far dirtier than other water, since the dissolved organics tends to accumulate on the surface. A sponge here will help but will get very dirty quickly and needs to be rinsed more often. A sponge on the intake, as mentioned will keep critters from crawling and getting mulched. As for the overflow making noises, browse around the DIY forum or the equpiment forum and see some options others are doing for this. I personally just stuck a 1" pvc 90degree elbow on the tube in the overflow to quiet it down. Works great for me, but cannot fit the sponge filter on it anymore, I dont' mind though.

 

[iwishtofish]

papaGimp, I may try the 90 degree elbow on my drain tube, and hopefully I can trim or otherwise modify the sponge to still fit. I see what you mean about the surface water.

I will be sure to use RO/DI water to flush out the filter sponges weekly!