High Flow Sponge Filter

I am upgrading a 55 gallon to a 125g, and decided to include some freshwater shrimp due to additional space. I know a sponge filter is prefered with fry and shrimp, but what is the best option? I have a molly, neon tetras, and two bn plecos. One day, the goal is to have more plants, too.

What is the cheapest, most effective option for the filtration system. I currently have a large canister filter and have always before used powerheads, a wet-dry filter, and an undergravel filtration system , but with this large a tank and shrimp/fry is this a good idea?

Looking for opinions and prior experience of tank equiptment.

 

As long as the shrimp fry don't fit into the holes on any of the intakes on filters/powerheads they would be ok. But id suspect the plecos would eat the shrimp fry anyway.
Ive been looking at the aquael turbo as very cheap option with good Lph

 

What species of shrimp? The plecos may not bother the shrimp, but mollies likely will, if the shrimp are a dwarf species.

You can use a canister still, and put pantyhose or a sponge over the intake? A sump with an overflow should also work. Or you could do a few sponge filters connected to large air pumps. With the messiness of the mollies and the plecos, I'd do a canister or sump though.

 

You can add an XL sponge from a sponge filter over the intake tube of any HOB or Canister filter, that should be enough to keep fry safe.

If you don't have anyfiltration and are looking for cheap a whisper 60 power filter is only $20 on amazon, And does 330gph (again add a sponge to the intake). The whisper power filters are the loudest ive ever had but also the most power per $$.

Only using an air power ed sponge filters will cost a fortune. The tetra Whisper 100 airpump is the largest tetra makes, It moves upto 45 gph water depending on the uplift tube size and legth of the sponge filter.. I used a Tetra 40 Airpump as my backup filter, it moves 12 gph water (if the filter was 100% efficient, it would get a max of 20gph).

If I were you Id keep the cansiter filter ad stick the sponge on the intake. The beatuy of the caister filter is you can do mmany things to increase or decrease the current. Making it comprtable for fry or fish that need a river environment.

In terms of cost, maintenance, etc HOB tend to be the most price efficient if you use your own media and not buy the cartridges. I still prefer a canister filter.

Obviously if you have a 125 drilled with an overflow, that would be the best route. Might be worth considering if your getting a new tank that size.

 

The use of Foam/Sponges integrated into your filtration is the best route to go when dealing with fry and shrimp.

Most breeders' filtration is usually handled mainly by sponge filtration.

If you want to go the route of sponge only filtration, get a few of these large tower block sponge filters from Swiss Tropicals and a large air pump from Jehmco.





On your powerheads, stick some ATI Hydro Sponge IV's or V's on them....





Or attach a stacked combo sponge to the power head with both coarse and fine sponges




Online places like Ken's Fish, Jehmco are the best sources that sell the complete assortment of ATI sponge products.


If you want to use your canister still, depending on the flow, you can attach either an ATI Hydro-Max III on the intake tube......

ATI Filter Max III

• Islandvic
• Nov 15, 2018

ATI Filter Max III with Aquaclear 70/110 intake tube

ATI Filter Max III assembled

• Islandvic
• Nov 15, 2018

ATI Filter Max III pre-filter coarse sponge attached to Aquaclear 70/110 intake tube

Or put an ATI Hydro-Pond III on it.....




Another route is to go with a corner style mattenfilter setup on both rear corners of the tank. The Swiss Tropicals website has a lot of info on that and sell kits custom to your requirements.

 

If you want to go the route of sponge only filtration, get a few of these large tower block sponge filters from Swiss Tropicals and a large air pump from Jehmco.

You can also use these with a powerhead if you're like me and can't deal with air pump noise. I installed a flat mattenfilter for my oscar and just put a mag-drive pump behind it and stuck a pipe through the foam. Just another option.

 

I always loved my sponge filter more than the canister filters. I would definitely use one in a fry tank or a shrimp tank purely because of how safe they are to use with them, plus, they're ridiculously efficient.
Sponges are low maintenance, safe, and multipurpose. I used to move mine around from an established tank to any new tank just to give a jump start on cycling. It worked like a charm!

 

I would suggest a larger sponge for you. My tank has 7 fish that don't like flow so I got this

Comes with 8 sponges. Drilled lots of holes in the bottom 10" of my canister filter intake, slid 2 and a half of the sponges over the intake, and slid 3 on my spray bar. I did have to use scissors to make the holes bigger for the intake.

I have an air pump for surface agitation so I stuck this on the end of the tube instead of an airstone, weak back up filter should something go wrong with the canister, or to seed a new tank.

No turbulence, and bonus, my canister filter media isn't getting nearly as dirty. (the sponges on the input need ringing out every 3 weeks, but I rather do that than clean the caister filter media)