Lifting power for sponge filters: Big bubbles vs. small bubbles?

[dogofwar]

The limiting factor for speed is really whether the hot water runs out...and the water pressure in adding water back to the tanks.

I drain 5 tanks at a time (using siphon tubes) through a central drain...and clean the boxes while I'm re-filling... Not a lot of time for aquascaping (or glass cleaning ) but nice clean water...

I don't have a sink in the room so rinsing off stuff (sponges, etc.) requires venturing out of the man-cave with fish stuff, which is highly discouraged

Matt

Hard to argue with empirical evidence - tis a far better testimony than any other. You've clearly a much better efficiency than I can claim or attain what with ferrying 5 gallon buckets of water back and forth throughout my apartment.

One day I too will have a fish room...thus do I imagine.

 

[Avatar]

I use a couple of buckets for squeezing sponges clean (mostly)...

...but I see your point. Doesn't sound like you need to do much in the way of pre-treatment for your water either which is not the case for me. Have to take issue with the 'man-cave' thing however - what happened to the lofty 'castle' notion regarding a Man's home?

The limiting factor for speed is really whether the hot water runs out...and the water pressure in adding water back to the tanks.

I drain 5 tanks at a time (using siphon tubes) through a central drain...and clean the boxes while I'm re-filling... Not a lot of time for aquascaping (or glass cleaning ) but nice clean water...

I don't have a sink in the room so rinsing off stuff (sponges, etc.) requires venturing out of the man-cave with fish stuff, which is highly discouraged

Matt

 

[dogofwar]

There's nothing lofty about the windowless basement furnace / utility room to which I've been contained in my fishkeeping endeavors...but it will do!

...but I see your point. Doesn't sound like you need to do much in the way of pre-treatment for your water either which is not the case for me. Have to take issue with the 'man-cave' thing however - what happened to the lofty 'castle' notion regarding a Man's home?

 

[Frank Cowherd]

Hey , I know what you mean about cleaning sponge filters. It can certainly be a pain and if you squeeze too hard the black water goes someplace you do not want it to. At any rate, here is what I have learned over the years. If you place the sponge in a bucket of water and pump the sponge up and down with your palm until it is no longer hard, assuming you allowed it to accumulate so much gunk that it is hard, you will get most of the gunk out with less effort than if you tried to do the same under running water. Even better is to take it out side and use the garden hose on it, the higher the water pressure the better.
A little know fact, I think, is that sponges are not all equal. Lots of sponges used as filters in the aquarium are fine sponges in that they have small pores. They are great as they have a very large surface area to support good bacterial and lots of space for the accumulation of gunk. But the small pores make them very hard to get the gunk out, hard to clean, in other words.
But there are a number of different ways to make filter type sponges. A relatively old process is now being used to make a sponge filter that has larger pores with smoother edges to the pores. these sponges are referred to a reticulated sponges and I believe these types of sponges are used a pre-filters for many water pump intakes. Hydro-sponge is now using these reticulated sponges as their Hydro-Spoonge Pro series. I have a bunch of them and they are very nice. The pores are larger which for me translates to much easier cleaning, but it also means that a lot of gunk that would have plugged the smaller pores of the older filters just passes through these. And yet they still have quite a lot of surface area for the bacteria we all love.