Sponge Filters For Dummies?

[LionessN3cubs]

I got my 4x4x4 sponge filter today. It has something called a lift tube with it. I pushed the tube into the hole in the center of the sponge and put the hose from my air pump into it. Is this right? Im asking because firstly I can't get the tubing to stay put and secondly, all the bubbles are coming out of the top of the lift tube instead of doing anything to the sponge so I think I have it wrong. I figured out that I will need to tape or clamp the tubing to the edge of the tank so that it can't slide out, but I dont want to do that if I dont even have it set up right. Thanks for the help!

 

[Colin_T]

not quite sure on the type you have but most air operated filters have a couple of tubes going into the filter media. A thin tube takes the air from the airline and runs it down to the bottom of the filter where a thicker tube allows the bubbles to come back up and out. As the bubbles rise, they draw water up with them. Water, dirt & debri is drawn into the sponge where the dirt is trapped and the clean water is lifted up with the air bubbles.

 

[Tolak]

I'll just bet they look something like these two, with the bubbles coming out of the tube;

These should be an airline size hole in the side of the plastic uplift tube, this will hold the tubing in place. The bubbles just come out of the large tube, creating a water current that pulls water from the outside of the sponge, through the sponge and up the tube.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Thanks Tolak! Im not as dumb as I thought I was must be I jsut missed the air tube hole your talking about..was in a hurry to get it in the tank.

But now that its in there and I know its right.....how long should I wait to start testing the ammonia levels? I dont want to be testing constantly but neither do I want to take the chance of the levels dropping to 0 and the bacteria dying off more than they did during shipping.

 

[Tolak]

Feed the fish 1/3 normal, and test daily. If you don't detect any ammonia after a few days you can test every other day, and slowly increase feeding. After a week you should be fine.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Feed the fish 1/3 normal, and test daily. If you don't detect any ammonia after a few days you can test every other day, and slowly increase feeding. After a week you should be fine.

I dont have any fish (I have snails now tho!) but I'd imagine the same would apply? I thought maybe I should drop a flake or 2 of food in for the snails that hitched a ride on my filter LOL Thanks again

 

[Tolak]

You will have to have some ammonia source to keep the nitrifying bacteria alive on the sponge filters. Either add ammonia as you would for a fishless cycle, or add fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Wow, great that your mature media sponge filters came in and you've got them running. Any estimate on how long they were in transit, thus whether you think the bacteria lived?

I guess you kept them wet and when you put them in your tank they would have the 4ppm ammonia in there that you are keeping it at for the fishless cycling, right?

I would think you might begin to see your ammonia dropping slightly faster in a fairly short period since that sponge itself with all the mature bacteria in it will be able to contribute the the ammonia processing. It will take longer for those bacteria to migrate over to the anchoring sites in your main filter media but lets hope it all goes faster now.

Its wonderful that the kids are entertained by the snails! As a dull old adult I wouldn't have thought of that little twist!! Personally though (and I don't mean this to sound cruel) I wouldn't encourage the snails. They can probably survive just fine in the tank as is and by the time you have fish and some time goes by you may be glad not to have encouraged them too much. When they get bad they can be all over the tank and coming out onto your carpet! There are extensive threads on TFF with people discussing how the heck to get rid of them - can't remember where or I would include a link.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Wow, great that your mature media sponge filters came in and you've got them running. Any estimate on how long they were in transit, thus whether you think the bacteria lived?

I guess you kept them wet and when you put them in your tank they would have the 4ppm ammonia in there that you are keeping it at for the fishless cycling, right?

I would think you might begin to see your ammonia dropping slightly faster in a fairly short period since that sponge itself with all the mature bacteria in it will be able to contribute the the ammonia processing. It will take longer for those bacteria to migrate over to the anchoring sites in your main filter media but lets hope it all goes faster now.

Its wonderful that the kids are entertained by the snails! As a dull old adult I wouldn't have thought of that little twist!! Personally though (and I don't mean this to sound cruel) I wouldn't encourage the snails. They can probably survive just fine in the tank as is and by the time you have fish and some time goes by you may be glad not to have encouraged them too much. When they get bad they can be all over the tank and coming out onto your carpet! There are extensive threads on TFF with people discussing how the heck to get rid of them - can't remember where or I would include a link.

~~waterdrop~~

Well the longest they COULD have been out of the TANK they came from is from 3pm on tuesday until about noon on friday but I seriously doubt he pulled them as soon as I placed the order. The website says if you order after 2pm, they wont be processed and shipped until 11am the next day. Since this guy knows what he's doing I doubt he left them out longer than they had to be. So Im assuming they were out of the tank for roughly 48 hours give or take. He shipped them in a bag full of tank water, plus they were full of water themselves so there they should have been fine. They had plenty of icky waste products to have been feeding on I'd think.

Nah Im not going to encourage the snails and if I see more of them than the 2 I already know about I'll do the lettuce thing. I havent seen them since last night anyways so they might have crawled out anyways since I dont have the hood on anyways. I am not telling the boys this tho LOL.

so far I still havent seen ANY drop in the ammonia still. I am going to do a 50% water change as tolak suggested to get the ammonia level down. Its increasing a bit since I added the sponge with all its rotting gunk in it. Im crossing my fingers. I am seriously going to give up on the fishless thing by monday if I dont see SOMETHING by then tho. Im going to assume its jsut not going to work if it hasn't by then.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

k I did the water change and ammonia is now reading 2.0. We'll see what happens.

 

[waterdrop]

I would think it would take at least a few days to see any effect from the new sponge, if not a week.