AC110 w/two sponges

[Snake_Eyes]

I just added another sponge and it sticks out of the water about a 1/4", is this fine or should I trim it so it's fully submerged?

 

[Bderick67]

Just outa curiousity why would you go with two sponges?

 

[Snake_Eyes]

I've read that quite a few people double up on the sponges for optimal mechanical filtration.

 

[Bderick67]

Well if thats the case, the sponge that is out of the water is doing you no good. I use my ACs for strictly mech filtration and just rinse weekly, not sure that another sponge would help any.

 

[ewurm]

I don't think you need two sponges on an AC 110, I use 1 and double up the bio media.

 

[Wolf3101]

You can leave it sticking out of the water...it wont hurt anything. From a purely mechanical filtration standpoint however you wont gain much with a second piece of foam. The bottom foam will fill up first and the filter will start to bypass at the same time either way. Adding a finer media is also a bad idea because the AC will then start overflowing from the restriction.

I'd recomend using just the single foam and then a bag of Resin...(algon...perg....ect.)

 

[Snake_Eyes]

I don't think you need two sponges on an AC 110, I use 1 and double up the bio media.

On another somewhat recent thread somebody was asking about mech for the AC110 and you suggested sponge,floss,sponge?

 

[Fry]

I use 2 sponges because I bought my AC500 back before BioMax was included. The unit never overflows and the sponges are rinsed weekly with lots of "dirt" in BOTH sponges. I have it in a 75G with about 15 large goldfish and I have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, this is the only filtration for the tank. So IME, 2 sponges work very well. As for the part sticking out, I usually push the sponges down after a rinse so that they both remain wet all the time. Don't know how it's efficiency compares to BioMax or other biological media but the sponges obviously provide a ton of biological filtration themselves, plus the water is crystal clear.

 

[Bderick67]

You can test this yourself, after a week with the two sponges, clean them. This should show you wether the second sponge is worth having.

 

[ewurm]

On another somewhat recent thread somebody was asking about mech for the AC110 and you suggested sponge,floss,sponge?

For the AC70 it works great, the 110 it works too. I only do that on one tank. It's effective, but eliminates biofiltration. For the 70's two sponges works great, with room for bio. With the 110's, I'll uses one for mech and another for bio. If there is a canister on the tank as well, I'll use the can for mech and the AC's for bio. Depends on how many filters you are running. I forget sometimes that people may not be running everything the same as I am. You definitely don't want to be running low on biofiltration, but don't want junk floating around either.