Oh....now I am begriming to understand ...yes, and the fact that the air passes
*through* the open cell sponge has the same benefit as the *very* expensive
wet-dry filter system, that is, the media is both in air and water, and promotes
the desirable biological diversity.
Yea, sure regular water changes...don't over clean the sponge...vacuum the gravel
and so on.
Mmm...List sponge filters...in this part of the world *political correctness*
is the order of the day, and I like it. Although I don't particularly care for spam,
especially since there are soo many usernet groups; I am glad that somebody around
here is talking about List banishment, particularly when we get into
nationality and that sort of stuff...hail to the tiger...
Ed Romana
********************************************************************************
At 09:30 AM 25/1/97 +-1100, you wrote:
>
>
>----------
>From: Ed Romana[SMTP:erom at earthlink.net]
>Sent: Thursday, 23 January, 1997 08:52
>To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au
>Subject: Re: Hi and RE: [RML] Fish Rooms
>
>Rob,
>Ok fine I take your word for it, but what is a sponge filter?
>
>Around here the brand "Aquaclear" filter is popular. It is a
>plastic box, that hangs on the tank side, with a siphon and a motor
>pump arangement that recirculates the water through a open cell sponge
>and a carbon or other media bags, and that's it.
>
>Is this what you mean by sponge filter?
>
>Nope, too complicated. We use a hollow cylinder of open cell sponge, shoved into a small plastic container of the same diameter which has a few rocks in it to hold it down. (You can use shell grit if needed). An airline is fed through the side of the con
tainer to an air-stone. As air bubbles rise through the sponge cylinder's hollow center water is drawn in through the cylinder's sides. That's it. We get ours from Eureka Aquarium Supplies in Queensland.
>
>As I said the sponge filters work fine in our holding, spawning and rearing tanks. They look a bit ugly, so you probably wouldn't use them in a display tank.
>
>One thing. You MUST do regular water changes and clean the sponge often. We just give each sponge a squeeze or two to get rid of most of the muck, then put it back in. That way you don't upset the biological function, but get rid of the spam that accumul
ates on the outside. Perhaps this list needs a sponge filter.
>
>If you don't have an abundant supply of cheap water you might need to consider a recirculating system, or treating your waste water before reusing it.
>
>Cheers.
>
>Rob Wager
>Freshwater Fish Biologist
>
>Raintree Aquatics Pty Ltd
>Aquatic Environment, Fish and Aquaculture Specialists
>
>1002 Caboolture River Road, Rocksberg, Queensland, Australia, 4510.
>Phone 07 5496 7939, Facsimile 07 5497 0022, International +61 7 5496 7939
>Email raintree at closer.brisnet.org.au
>
>
>
>