with this tank which is a 350ltr i wanted a form of simple and affordable filtration. A canister was never really an option as any pipes would have to run up the front of the tank due to its location, which meant internal filtration only really.
So i always pondered if sponge filter on a powerhead would be enough for 350ltr tank and so far it seems to be more than enough as free ammonia is stable between 0.005 - 0.008ppm (Seneye recordings) Api tests always show 0.
First version entailed a 900ltr/ph 8.5w on a Huey Hung 380ltr rated sponge as seen below.... After that it progressed to a 1200ltr/ph 13.5w attached in the same way to two Huey Hung 380ltr sponges stacked.
Ehiem pickup 2012 hospital filter also shown only 3.5w. small cost for a hospital tank filter at the ready.....
the above setup with Huey hung stacked sponges provided more than enough bio filtration, but does need a weekly rinse & i also noticed a dead spot where waste collected in the adjacent corner opposite the filter.
After purchasing some bad fish from a local fish shop i needed to use some meds and changing 50% or more of water a couple of times a week did get annoying, so i found myself looking at canister filter in order to be able to run chemical filtration to remove some less potent meds. But this was against the whole idea of my low cost tank, which lead me to adapt my filter again which is the great thing with diy.
as you can see in the photo below i adjusted the stacked sponges to place one in each corner to stop the dead spot (Although now a lot of waste and bits come to rest under the sponges themself with makes vacuming easy). I have also added a chamber capable of holding 250-300grams of carbon for removing meds, along with this i have yet increased the powerhead to a 1800ltr/ph @ 15w........ i knew i should have bought that one months ago when i bought the 900ltr/ph
So apart from having to rinse these weekly i have found it a good setup for this tank and situation, i would like to see other peoples custom internal filter arrangements to aid my future adaptations..... one thing that i have tried to do is always keep things streamlined so that the filter does not take up too much room. as it is the fish can swim around the pipe work & the largest parts of this setup are the sponges which are interactive with the fish in that some fish feed off them like the plecs.
So i always pondered if sponge filter on a powerhead would be enough for 350ltr tank and so far it seems to be more than enough as free ammonia is stable between 0.005 - 0.008ppm (Seneye recordings) Api tests always show 0.
First version entailed a 900ltr/ph 8.5w on a Huey Hung 380ltr rated sponge as seen below.... After that it progressed to a 1200ltr/ph 13.5w attached in the same way to two Huey Hung 380ltr sponges stacked.
Ehiem pickup 2012 hospital filter also shown only 3.5w. small cost for a hospital tank filter at the ready.....
the above setup with Huey hung stacked sponges provided more than enough bio filtration, but does need a weekly rinse & i also noticed a dead spot where waste collected in the adjacent corner opposite the filter.
After purchasing some bad fish from a local fish shop i needed to use some meds and changing 50% or more of water a couple of times a week did get annoying, so i found myself looking at canister filter in order to be able to run chemical filtration to remove some less potent meds. But this was against the whole idea of my low cost tank, which lead me to adapt my filter again which is the great thing with diy.
as you can see in the photo below i adjusted the stacked sponges to place one in each corner to stop the dead spot (Although now a lot of waste and bits come to rest under the sponges themself with makes vacuming easy). I have also added a chamber capable of holding 250-300grams of carbon for removing meds, along with this i have yet increased the powerhead to a 1800ltr/ph @ 15w........ i knew i should have bought that one months ago when i bought the 900ltr/ph
So apart from having to rinse these weekly i have found it a good setup for this tank and situation, i would like to see other peoples custom internal filter arrangements to aid my future adaptations..... one thing that i have tried to do is always keep things streamlined so that the filter does not take up too much room. as it is the fish can swim around the pipe work & the largest parts of this setup are the sponges which are interactive with the fish in that some fish feed off them like the plecs.
