top sponge for a canister filter, in bulk?

hey everyone I've read in random posts of the topic of a big bag that you can get at your local fish store of sponge material that would typically go on the top of the canister filter.....the one that you hardly throw away cause it holds all the bacteria goodness. I asked my fish store guy if he sells the that bulk in a big bag...instead of buying the pads made for the filter....like mine I have the eheim classic. He said yea for around $30. I thought it was super cheap??

What do you all use as your sponge filtration that you can put in your filter...rather it be canister or HOB or whatever.

Thanks!

 

I use the sponges/pads that are designed for the specific filter for canisters. I will also throw the blue and white pads in just to have seeded media to move, should I need it. Truthfully, I ought to just set up a small HOB with the media in it so I don;t have to open up the cansiters. For HOBs, I use aquaclear sponges.

 

yeah but the sponges that are made for the filters are always expensive, especially my eheim. I've randomly read that you can just bay a bag of stuff and cut it to the shape of what you need. Its cheaper.

 

I misunderstood, I didn't realize you were talking about as a water polisher. I don't use water polishing stuff, so I can't help.

 

With Eheim Classics, it's a bit easier to make your own filter floss/polishing pads, given they are circular. I was doing that with my Classic before I upgraded to the Pro canister.

If I could be bothered, I could cut my own pads for the Pro, but they are shaped, and have a hole at one end. For me, it's easier to buy the original ones. I only replace them once every 3 ish months, when the filter really starts slowing down. So I get 9 months out of a box of 3.

So yes, you could make your own. No problem there, the only thing I found was that the non-Eheim stuff was thinner and thicker, "not as fluffy" if you will. But it works just fine.

 

30 bucks?

Try Petsmart, they carry (if I remember the brand correctly) marinland cut to size filter padding for like 7 or 8 bucks. Depending on the filter should get about three pads out of it.

 

For my HOBs, I use the Marineland uncut filter pad material:



It's cheap and it lasts forever. I've been using the same package for years. I would think this will work for canister too, but I don't have direct experience with canisters.

 

Yeah that's the one. When I had really cloudy water after adding sand, I used it in the Aquatop CF400 because I wasn't sure how much it would clog the pads.

Worked fine. Just traced and cut out the pad made for the filter onto a piece of card board, and then used that for a template to cut it from the Marineland cut to size padding. Worked great with no issues.

 

For my HOBs, I use the Marineland uncut filter pad material:



It's cheap and it lasts forever. I've been using the same package for years. I would think this will work for canister too, but I don't have direct experience with canisters.

That's what I use in my canister. I also use a sponge cleaning pad cut to size, works great. It was labeled "glass cleaning sponge."