The Importance Of A Sponge

[Anthony!]

no offence, bit it just looks as if it's a kitchen sponge with an air pump in it,... (at least at the fish store)
are these VITAL to the survival of tropicals, or at least ones in big tanks? I've had a 10 gal. with 3 fish live on just a good filter & bacteria (cleaning wise lol) so will I need to buy one of these for a 55 gal? if so,... well, just tell me about them, I don't know much about sponges )

 

[pieman]

I have a sponge in my filter, came with the tank, I have no idea what kind of sponge it is, what it does or how to clean it

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Um, I'm assuming we're talking about a sponge filter? As far as I know these are good in breeding tanks where you need a filter that won't suck the fry up in, but I use regular filters for everything else. I don't see any reason to use it in your bigger tanks if you don't want to.

 

[Tolak]

Sponge filters are awesome for bio filtration. They are the cheapest way to filter multiple tanks.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi PapaSmurf

There are numerous kinds of filter media, but they all serve the same purpose. That is, they provide a place with lots of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to cling to. A sponge has a lot of tiny holes and each hole has walls and filter floss is a wad of long fibers bunched up together.

As long as you have enough places for the bacteria to live, and they are arranged so that the water can flow through them, your filtration will be adequate.

 

[Anthony!]

Hi PapaSmurf

There are numerous kinds of filter media, but they all serve the same purpose. That is, they provide a place with lots of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to cling to. A sponge has a lot of tiny holes and each hole has walls and filter floss is a wad of long fibers bunched up together.

As long as you have enough places for the bacteria to live, and they are arranged so that the water can flow through them, your filtration will be adequate.

that really hepls alot. thank you so much!