Home Made Sponge Filters

[DeadFish666]

Hi all:

I want to make several small, home made sponge filters for fry tanks. While searching for sponges and ammonia to start my cycling, I noticed that the corner supermarket and Wal-mart alike only carry ammonia with surfactants and all the sponges say "not for aquarium use." I finally went to Tru Value Hardware and there was the ammonia as this forumn suggests and the sponges they carry do not have the warning on it.

Does anyone know if there is a specific type of sponge to use or if those at Tru Value would be safe for aquariums?

Thanks

 

[loraxchick]

you need open-cell sponges. Kitchen sponges are no good as they are closed-celled. It is commonly used in furniture cushions and i seem to remember when i was a kid in art class making puppets out of the stuff too. So maybe a craft store or furniture upholstery place would have something (even scraps that they could give you). I *think* those big sponges you wash ares with might be open-cell sponges, but someone would have to confirm (just make sure they dont have chemicals on them out of the package-i know some do).
All of my tanks have home-made sponge filters. Its a fun little project and dont take any time at all to put together. I got my sponges in a discount bin at the LFS- they were leftover pieces from cut sponges..that also might be worth a try (they were brand new of course).
keep us posted on what you find. just remember-no kitchen sponges..they are the wrong type.
cheers!

 

[DeadFish666]

you need open-cell sponges. Kitchen sponges are no good as they are closed-celled. It is commonly used in furniture cushions and i seem to remember when i was a kid in art class making puppets out of the stuff too. So maybe a craft store or furniture upholstery place would have something (even scraps that they could give you). I *think* those big sponges you wash ares with might be open-cell sponges, but someone would have to confirm (just make sure they dont have chemicals on them out of the package-i know some do).
All of my tanks have home-made sponge filters. Its a fun little project and dont take any time at all to put together. I got my sponges in a discount bin at the LFS- they were leftover pieces from cut sponges..that also might be worth a try (they were brand new of course).
keep us posted on what you find. just remember-no kitchen sponges..they are the wrong type.
cheers!

Excellent! Thank you for the info.

 

[waterdrop]

I realize it's not in the spirit of homemade but I've found that some of the fluval replacement white sponges come in rather large sheets and are a very open cell design. You might check whether those are too expensive.

~~waterdrop~~