HOB or Sponge for 20 Gallon

Curious to know your preference on HOB versus sponge filter for a 20 gallon. I have only ever used HOB, but I am thinking about trying a sponge. They seem so much easier to maintain. But I am skeptical about the flow... does it really circulate the tank enough? Or am I going to have more problems with dead spots?

 

The only down side to spong is not as much filtration (a spong compaired to a spong and other filter media) otherwise I prefer spong filters

 

It does some good oxygenation, but their will definitely be dead spots. Installing an air stone in the sponge filter can help with that. I actually run an Aquaclear 30 HOB and a Sponge filter in my tank and it seems to oxygenate the water well. HOB's also seem to filter better, and your able to mix and match diffrent filter media's with HOB's.

Also, a good tip for the HOB's is, is that try to add a pre filter sponge on the intake tube of the HOB filter. It helps reduce maintenance by a lot IMO. This is because it traps the gunk and larger macro gunk before it gets inside the filter which allows cleaning to be much more simple. And adds some extra biological filtration!

 

It does some good oxygenation, but their will definitely be dead spots. Installing an air stone in the sponge filter can help with that. I actually run an Aquaclear 30 HOB and a Sponge filter in my tank and it seems to oxygenate the water well. HOB's also seem to filter better, and your able to mix and match diffrent filter media's with HOB's.

Also, a good tip for the HOB's is, is that try to add a pre filter sponge on the intake tube of the HOB filter. It helps reduce maintenance by a lot IMO. This is because it traps the gunk and larger macro gunk before it gets inside the filter which allows cleaning to be much more simple. And adds some extra biological filtration!

I do have a sponge on the intake already I have an airstone in the tank already too. Another reason I was considering was to try to have less devices by combining the air and filter. Hmm. I think I am leaning towards keeping the HOB. Dead spots are prompting me to rescape the tank as it is with the HOB, don't want to make it worse! Maybe I'll just look into upgrading it from the kit one. Have you ever tried an internal filter?

 

All my tanks (20 and 29) run on 2 sponge filters with airstones inside. Has always done fine for me.

 

Sponge filters do great but sometimes I prefer a good ole' hang on the back filter. Like for my fancy golfish tank. I have a HOB filter on them and I really like it. I currently have a HOB on a betta tank but that'll change to a sponge at some point once the tank is more established.