# can i use only sponge filters in my new 125



## marcshrimp (Jun 16, 2013)

I just bought a 125 gallon with hood and stand off craigslist. I wanna try something that I haven't tried before (well sort of... not on a tank this large anyway) I currently have 2 heavily planted 40's up and running with hob filters with sponge prefilters and 1 powerhead to circulate water and disperse co2. the hob filters are empty except for loose bio media (no carbon or mechanical filtration.. took all that out). the tanks run beautifully and I never have any problems with anything level wise. all I do is take the sponge off the intake once every two weeks and rinse in a bucket of waste water. my question for all you tank gods out there is...... can I put like 3 hydro 5 sponge filters with powerheads attached into this 125 gallon and have enough filtration? I can hide them behind plants, and wont this sorta promote the tom barr method of a planted tank? that's how my other two tanks are running, heavy planted, good bio load, c02, and light dosing of ferts. I never clean the tanks.. I don't have too, I just top the tanks off when they need it and rinse the sponges every two weeks. they are crystal clear and I have to constantly trim plants. sooo back to my question.. can I just use sponges??????? I really would love to have a tank without a canister or hob or both. 

what got me thinking about trying this is I have a 90 gallon with a canister on it and a 55 with a canister and a hob.. and honestly these are my least favorite tanks because I hate cleaning canisters and monitoring ph and ammonia and doing constant water changes and all that crap... don't fuss at me about not monitoring the 40's because nothing goes wrong with them. I watch the snails and how the plants and fish act and can tell. something allways seems to be going crazy in the 90 and 55. 

hope someone can tell me if this is a good idea or not. just sponge filters with power heads... nothing else


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## marcshrimp (Jun 16, 2013)

I might have needed to post this in the equipment section lol. sorry.


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

There are a few people here that have a bunch of canisters and HOB's that don't use them at all because sponge filters are so easy, cheap and of course effective. I like canisters personally. I think they are very effective, they just need to be cleaned and I don't mind the extra work. I also supplement regular WC's so that my nitrates stay down and I have a ton of mechanical filtration. 

Personally I don't know how good, big or small those sponges are. But I can say that it should work. Being heavily planted though reducing current is the biggest problem for your plants getting blown around. Might recommend, and so would the guru's here, that you use air pumps instead of power heads for that reason. Maybe do a main air pump and one power head for circulation to be at a minimum.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

I personally use a sponge filter with an air pump in my bettas tank, granted it is only a 3g bowl so nothing in comparison. But I don't see why it shouldn't work on a larger scale. I think the powerheads are a good idea, with airpumps you wont circulate the water as well and you might end up with dead spots which you obviously want to avoid. The extra flow is also good for keeping algae of the plants, plus there is no annoying bubble sound with the powerheads


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## marcshrimp (Jun 16, 2013)

thanks guys. i think where im going with this is, with the 40 gallon tanks i have just been playing around with stripping the filtration down to bare essentials and they seem to be running better and better.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

as i had said on another thread , we have almost 100 tanks set up...with about 25 of them being 40 gallons up to 135 gallons...although we have numerous canister and HOB filters as well as some internal filters , we don't use any of them..we are only using sponge filters..no powerheads either as they would consume too much electricity...so we have one large airpump running everything...in the big tanks (135,125,90 & 75) we use 4-6 large sponge filters each...i think that they do a pretty good job..


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## marcshrimp (Jun 16, 2013)

what about c02 loss with the air pumps running the sponges? or should I try a non c02 planted tank? I know they can be done and require less intensive light... so it may be an all around good option. hmmm. guess ill have to research it. haven't done but one planted tank non co2 and its my discus tank.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

None of my tanks have co2 and they are all planted. Go with low light plants that don't require high amounts of co2. Instead of using co2 you can use liquid carbon. Seachem sells this and its called Flourish excel. I highly recommend using it, all my plants are growing wonderfull without co2 and liquid carbon instead.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

god does not use co2 injection...


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## marcshrimp (Jun 16, 2013)

LOL! that is very true. thank you for your help and easing my concerns. had to reseal the tank and filled it up today with no leaks.. so now to just start collecting the sponges and heaters and ..... im off on a new adventure. 125 gallon non c02 planted tank with sponges as filtration... here I come


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

CO2 is necessary if you're keeping plants that don't belong underwater to start with. It's amazing how many can grow if like that if you have enough light, CO2, and the time/money to keep them alive. My interest is fish though, aside from some Najas, hornwort, and duckweed I don't have live plants in most of my tanks. Cichlids and silver dollars eat plants, so I toss netfuls of duckweed from overgrown tanks in for them to snack on.
Air-driven sponge filters are great, no impellers or shafts to wear out or jam up, or fail to restart after a power blink. Also so much quicker and easier to clean than canister filters...


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## marcshrimp (Jun 16, 2013)

oh I have c02 tanks, I love them, but for this tank I think im gonna try without it. i absolutely love my endlers. talk about a little cleaner fish. they are always cleaning up the plants in my 40's. at first they overpopulated, then they slowed down a lot and i haven't had population problems. i love to watch them though. i just have tigers. didn't know what they were and came for free in a shipment of plants from florida.


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