240 Gallon Solely Filtered By Sponges-Can It Be Done?

[Ensorcelled]

Just as my topic title says, I am curious to know if anyone out there is filtering a huge tank solely with sponge filtration aka Hydor V's etc. The plan for the tank is going to be a heavily stocked Lake Tanganyika tank.

Thoughts?

 

[Aw3s0m3]

I saw a guy on YouTube that had all his tanks filtered with only sponge filters but his largest were 150's and they were by no means heavily stocked. Since yours is gonna be heavily stocked I wouldn't recommend it. You'll have to do a lot of wc's since sponges are pretty useless when it comes to mechanical filtration


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[Oddball]

You can probably do well using a couple of pond size sponge filters. They're rated for small ponds. The sponges require .25 CFM of air to operate properly. That volume of air will move quite a bit of water. 2 of these sponges will take up less of a footprint than a bunch of smaller aquarium sponges. I used 1 in a 100gal tropheus tank. I liked that their fry could graze on food from the surface of the sponge.

 

[Pharaoh]

Now that's a sponge filter!! ^^^^

 

[rodger]

The only negative is that cichlids tend to eat the sponge. You might have to replace it every year or so. Sponges are greajt filters.

 

[Miguel]

Sponge is still one of the best filter materials out there.

Monster fishkeepers in Germany still swear by them and want nothing else.

 

[dogofwar]

Sure - almost all of my tanks are exclusively filtered with air-driven sponge (and box) filters. I'd add some boxes for mechanical filtration.

Another approach would be to use Poret foam with air.

Matt

 

[Ensorcelled]

Well, that's good to know some people are pretty confident in it. Also, that is a massive sponge Oddball.

 

[viejafish]

You can keep very healthy fish with sponge filters alone, but sponges aren't appealing in a show tank. Without mechanical filtration, you need to do more frequent water changes to remove destritus and suspended solids, or else the water will be perennially cloudy.

 

[r.zanello]

Try a Hmf setup. That would do it for sure