Spongefilter

[christian1971]

Being a dummy that I am, I still am confused about sponge filters.
Does the sponge at the bottom suck in water? If so where does the water and muck go?
All I have seen in videos is that air bubbles going up.

[moon_knight1971]

yes pretty much. the bubbles give more air to the tank and, even though it might not look like it, the sponge(s) are sucking in very small pieces of whatever is floating in the water to add ever important batcteria to your tank. Basically, if you see the bubbles then its working.

[strawberryblonde]

They confused me too at first! LOL

I'm old school in fish keeping and had never seen or heard of them till I got back into the fish fun this year. Once you see it in action it makes a lot more sense.

The water and muck is sucked into the sponge. The muck stays in the sponge, the water goes up the air bubble column and is circulated back into the tank...all clean again. =)

To clean the sponge you just rinse it off in tank water (never tap water) in a bucket during a water change. I rinse mine weekly. A couple of light squeezes will get all the food bits out and the sponge will be ready to go for another week.

SB

[Darrell Ward]

A sponge filter is not going to pull large particles from the water. Instead, water passes through the foam, trapping very small particles, before the water is blown out the top. You can have a fairly clean looking sponge that has been running a week or two. However, when you remove it , and squeeze out the foam in a bucket of water, an amazing amount of dirt will be released into the water. This is what the bacteria feed on, making them a very effective bio-filter.