Eliminating the foam sponge in my ac110?
- Thread starter Edwardo
- Start date
I mean...mine does that in my growout tank because the duckweed that I thought was a great idea clogs up underneath, takes me 15 seconds to pull the sponge out and rinse it haha. add more filtration, it'll help your problem. like MBJ said get an aqueon 55/75. I run them and honestly for the money it moves a lot of water and catches a lot of debris.
Don't have sponges as your principal bacterial colony host. Then you can power rinse them in tap water and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. That's what I do and I run double sponge on my AC110.
You want a good suggestion? Don't waste your time rinsing that sponge in a bucket of used water. Run it under a faucet. you are not going to put a dent in your bacteria by doing this way, and it is way more efficient.
+1. I pressure wash mine with my thumb over the end of a garden hose lol.
Just worry about washing the rings in tank water
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Your foam is doing what mechanical filtration is supposed to do. It trapped fines and clogged up when the capacity is reached. If the filter doesn't get clogged up, it is not doing its job as water is bypassing around the media. There is no short cut to good mechanical filtration. Either you have to change media frequently if the media area is small such as a single HOB, or you can delay changing media if the media area is large such as a sump system or using multiple HOBs. I hanged multiple HOBs in my heavily loaded 125g, and have to change all filter media twice a week. When it comes to mechanical filtration, it is the media surface area, rather than the volume that matters because once the top layer get clogged up, the remaining thickness of the media is no longer fully utilized.
A small aquarium safe rock along with the net full of ceramic balls can work well on top of older foams that don't catch as well in the filter basket as foams start to get saturated. Sometimes underneath the basket (filter cavity) & the removable basket itself can get trapped gunk which doesn't help the situation, so make sure that's clean during filter cleanings
