Sponge filter Oscar tank

[skjl47]

I agree sponges filters are incredible and undoubtedly work. However when you have multiple tanks, a busy family and work life it can be difficult to schedule a 40 percent water change every other day among other things. I believe the ultimate goal is to create the healthiest environment for your fish to thrive. There are many roads that reach the same goal, heavy filtration works well for my lifestyle as it buffers my time. I think the question should be. If using sponge filters can I fit in the necessary time required to maintain my tanks health? This a rewarding hobby but it takes a lot of work. Anyone can buy a fish, few can cultivate their true potential.

Hello; Could be we are in a similar page or could be we are way off from each other. Devil in the details sort of thing. I kinda think so far we may be a bit apart.
Most home aquaria are closed systems and way too small to have the same sort of moderating effects found in a natural body of water. Being a closed system means everything that goes into a tank stays in the tank with few exceptions. The only effective way I know of is to dilute these accumulating things with a series of WC.
Heavy filtration does get the unsightly physical stuff (detritus) out of sight and does have the advantage of concentrating detritus in a way that makes removing it more simple. We do have to remove the detritus tho. Unless we actually remove that detritus from the closed system on a regular basis the effect is the same as if it were allowed to rot while spread thru out a tank. Tank looks better is a visual benefit I suppose. To use Duanes example, you do not have to see dog poo if it is under the rug but it is still in your house.
Aside from the physical lumps of stuff in a closed system there are numerous chemical compounds that accumulate in a closed system the power filters do nothing about with few exceptions. The main exception is the nitrogen cycle which converts the very toxic ammonia to nitrite and the nitrite to somewhat less toxic nitrate. Even tho less toxic the nitrates are not considered safe by most of us. A power filter can have dedicated surfaces for the bb to colonize.
My take is there are a number of other compounds dissolved or mixed in the water itself. Excretions from the fish and other living things and decay byproducts are some known examples. We can test for a small subset of the total number of things in the water itself that determine overall water quality and about which a power filter can do nothing.

There are a few ways to lessen the impact on water quality in a closed system. Very light stocking density and the use of live plants come to mind and can buy us time between a WC. But unless I am way off base the only good way to effectively deal with overall water quality in some level of regular WC. The last decade or so I have gone to very light stocking and the use of lots of live plants. I harvest the plants from time to time to make a difference.

All the stuff I just wrote boils down to me that a sponge filter operated tank can be pretty much the same as a heavy power filtered tank in terms of a WC schedule. In the sponge run tank the detritus is spread out all over so will make removal more of a chore where as the power filter can have it in a more handy place for removal.

 

[jaws7777]

Sure a sponge can work for an Oscar. You may need to add more as it grows. As long as there is no ammonia or nitrate the filtration is sufficient. Like others have mention turds in the tank or in the filter make no difference to the fish

 

[neutrino]

In the sense of sweeping it out of sight, I get it, but biologically speaking, a better comparison to dog waste would be outdoors, where natural processes break it down, vs. under a rug where there's little biologic activity-- with this qualification, it depends on the tank: a bare tank with limited biologic activity, aside from filtration, won't break down solid waste as well as a tank with substrate and other tank ecology supporting more numerous and diverse microbes. So different tanks are different.

It's not simply that you see it better in a bare tank. Microbes, including heterotrophs, the microbes you see in a bacteria bloom, break down solid waste-- they don't have to be visible in the water to be present. Redox is also a factor (according to my reading on it). A bare tank has less of this overall biologic activity.

I agree with Jeff, above, there's a variety of ways to approach tank hygiene. Personally, I believe in tank ecology and trying to achieve a balance that requires modest maintenance compared to what some do-- and by that I don't mean skipping regular water changes or filter maintenance, which I don't. Whatever the case, I have low nitrates in my tanks and healthy, long lived fish-- including at present some 14 year old kapampa gibberosa and a 15 yr. old L260 pleco that is still happy and active. That's with MY routine of maintenance and water changes, what someone else does doesn't matter to me.

There's more to water systems in nature than water flow flushing away wastes, which in some systems is actually limited-- some lakes and reefs, for example. Turbulence plays a role, but there's an ecology that continually processes nutrients (waste) consisting of various flora and fauna, micro and macro-scopic, including such natural biological filters as plants, molluscs, algae, bacteria, etc. There are a lot of ways to set up a tank, resulting in different maintenance needs. Some I rarely see mentioned here, some of these I haven't tried myself, either. But I've seen people successfully do zero or very little conventional filtration and small water changes-- algae scrubbers, lot of plants, few fish, drip systems, etc. These things do work and can reduce how much active maintenance you have to do, down to very little in some cases.

But, yes, in the great majority of tanks it's about water changes, maintaining filters, not overfeeding, etc.

...all of that long winded stuff said, don't think I'd do sponges only in an Oscar tank, at least not in conventional (most) setups-- just my opinion.

 

[evers86]

I’ve change all my other tanks over to sponge filters and the water is a lot clearer . I have 2 Oscar pair in separate 125 gal tanks that have canisters on them . I was thinking 4 Hydro 5’s with a 18 Ltr/hr pump be sufficient if the canister ever dies? All tanks get a 40% WC every week ( 2 if need be )

 

[Rocksor]

My oscars always ripped off pieces from the sponge filter as they grew up. So on a few occasions, at different times, I replaced the sponge filter.

 

[Nm1]

Hello; Could be we are in a similar page or could be we are way off from each other. Devil in the details sort of thing. I kinda think so far we may be a bit apart.
Most home aquaria are closed systems and way too small to have the same sort of moderating effects found in a natural body of water. Being a closed system means everything that goes into a tank stays in the tank with few exceptions. The only effective way I know of is to dilute these accumulating things with a series of WC.
Heavy filtration does get the unsightly physical stuff (detritus) out of sight and does have the advantage of concentrating detritus in a way that makes removing it more simple. We do have to remove the detritus tho. Unless we actually remove that detritus from the closed system on a regular basis the effect is the same as if it were allowed to rot while spread thru out a tank. Tank looks better is a visual benefit I suppose. To use Duanes example, you do not have to see dog poo if it is under the rug but it is still in your house.
Aside from the physical lumps of stuff in a closed system there are numerous chemical compounds that accumulate in a closed system the power filters do nothing about with few exceptions. The main exception is the nitrogen cycle which converts the very toxic ammonia to nitrite and the nitrite to somewhat less toxic nitrate. Even tho less toxic the nitrates are not considered safe by most of us. A power filter can have dedicated surfaces for the bb to colonize.
My take is there are a number of other compounds dissolved or mixed in the water itself. Excretions from the fish and other living things and decay byproducts are some known examples. We can test for a small subset of the total number of things in the water itself that determine overall water quality and about which a power filter can do nothing.

There are a few ways to lessen the impact on water quality in a closed system. Very light stocking density and the use of live plants come to mind and can buy us time between a WC. But unless I am way off base the only good way to effectively deal with overall water quality in some level of regular WC. The last decade or so I have gone to very light stocking and the use of lots of live plants. I harvest the plants from time to time to make a difference.

All the stuff I just wrote boils down to me that a sponge filter operated tank can be pretty much the same as a heavy power filtered tank in terms of a WC schedule. In the sponge run tank the detritus is spread out all over so will make removal more of a chore where as the power filter can have it in a more handy place for removal.

We are definitely not apart because we both obviously care enough to ask questions and further question solutions.

I change water on a schedule that keeps my parameters on par. I know this because I test my water on a schedule as well and I never assume.

I run my tanks like a business. Successful business’s need investment be it infrastructure, time and capital etc...

I run sponge filters on smaller tanks that house smaller occupants and to be honest I like it better that way. For larger messy fish in large tanks I can justify the filtration expenditure with data and how it relates to my water parameters vs time spent maintaining them. The health of your fish should be the goal equally important is having balance in your life and boundaries on your hobby.