A rant about sponge filters

Okay, this has been sitting on me for a bit and I neeeeeed to let it out.

Sponge filters are literally GOD SEND.

Seriously, I will make my religion praising the person who created sponge filters.

They have solved ALL my problems created by HOB filters.
They are quiet; HOBs are not
They require very little maintenance; HOBs are a whole extra living thing to care for
They leave your floating plants in peace; HOBs suck them all up
You can leave them on during water changes and you don’t have to go through a whole ordeal the way you do with HOBs.

Now I haven’t used sponge filters long, they may not support BB as well and filter the whole tank as well, because I’ve been using both an HOB and a sponge for awhile now. But I’m ready to take down my HOB, because it’s loud and a whole extra load of work.

Another thing: Sponge filters outdo airstones completely. I see no reason to get an air stone instead of a sponge filter. Literally for a few extra bucks you just get a whole new filtration system as well as oxygen exchange and surface agitation.

Anyways, TL;DR, HOBs suck and Sponge filters are my religion

 

My air pump is in the cabinet of my tank stand, so that may be why the noise is so little. I tested the noise of both my AC and my sponge by unplugging one and listening to the other. The sponge is a soft hum with occasional bubble noise. The AC rattles loudly and somehow manages to make water noises even with the water level as high as possible.

On the contrary, I have a TopFin 10 running in my betta tank, and it’s actually totally silent. I actually wanted to run a small sponge in that tank, but the bubbles pushed my betta around too much so I pulled out the HOB instead. The other 3 TopFin filters I’ve had however, were even louder than my AC is.

I just don’t get the hype. If only all my others were as loyal, productive and long lasting as my TopFin 10 is :/

Are you sure it's not the lid of the AC that is rattling? For the impeller to make a loud rattling sound, that is usually a sign that the magnet around the impeller shaft is worn down. Not trying to sound like a salesman for AquaClear, but I own 6 of them and they are all dead silent. Except for the lids... which is an easy fix. I put a little bit of silicone grease on the lid so it dampens the slight rattling.

 

I have two large air pumps producing 130 litres /35 gallons of air per minute. While they are a reasonably quite modern style pump moving them to the other end of the house and putting them in the garage was a smart move. We still have around 100 filters running in the house but it’s now just the slow bubbling in the background.

Apart from the low cost of electricity to just run two air pumps for all filtration. The biggest advantage is in my extremely hot climate I found internal filters of any kind that had a motor in water raised the water temperature in summer. As I HAVE TO run air conditioning to keep the temperature as low as possible for a few months of the year it has made a big difference removing motors from water.

 

Are you sure it's not the lid of the AC that is rattling? For the impeller to make a loud rattling sound, that is usually a sign that the magnet around the impeller shaft is worn down. Not trying to sound like a salesman for AquaClear, but I own 6 of them and they are all dead silent. Except for the lids... which is an easy fix. I put a little bit of silicone grease on the lid so it dampens the slight rattling.

Nope, it’s not the lid unfortunately