powerheads!! the way to go!

[Scottfree]

whenever you clean it you will lose a ton of biological filtration.
it would be a great secondary filter but I wouldnt use it as the main filter...maybe you can fill the canister with bio filtration and use the powerhead and mechanical filtration.

Huh? I don't follow you here, if you rinse out the sponge in aquarium water is shouldn't lose any of it's bio filtration....

 

[vanimate]

i,dont,understand,how,its,better,than,a,eheim,i,see,it,helping,a,little,bit,for,mechanical,and,some,bio,but,not,being,better,than,a,eheim

my,appologise,in,advance,for,all,of,these,,,,,,,my,space,bar,is,broke

If your space bar is broke how did you get that space in "se e"?

 

[Kenta]

powerheads are great for mechanical.
I had a 700gph powerhead in my tank with a sponge over it. It picked up more debris than my canisters and HOBs.
Great for mechanical, but compared to a canister not so great. You can customize canisters easier than a powerhead and you have much more room for media and such.

 

[rumblesushi]

Opiate - you don't understand, your powerhead is great for aeration and also for "fine filtering" the water, with the sponge.

But crap for biological filtration. One of the advantages of canisters over internal filters etc is the larger volume of bio media. Ceramic rings, sintered glass, polywool etc can all fit in a canister. This allows for a greater volume of bio bacteria to thrive, and also to polish the water with the wool.

Your powerhead setup is good for oxygenation and for fine filtering the water, but no substitute for a canister as a bio filter.

 

[redtailfool]

powerheads with sponge filters are good for taking out floating particulate matter in the tank but the problem is that it gets clogged easily and looks ugly in a tank. I have one but i take out the sponge filter once i a while because i cant stand seeing all the gunk stuck in the filter.

 

[fish head )'>]

I have to agree with the can-heads.

 

[HarleyK]

Huh? I don't follow you here, if you rinse out the sponge in aquarium water is shouldn't lose any of it's bio filtration....

The bacteria are in the crap you rinse out. By using aquarium water you only prevent killing the remaining fixed bacteria by chlorine.

Rallysman is absolutely right.

HarleyK

 

[Tanyoberu]

I agree with the post that canisters are much better for your only means of filtration hands down. But I do keep the sponges similar to your set up. It happened by accident because the powerheads were for water movement as a bonus I saw how effective the sponges were so I placed sponges over all of my intakes and have not had clearer water, plus the BLACK sponges act as a prefilter and my canister can go a much longer time between cleanings. I just alternate rinsing each of the sponges out with every water change.