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Polyether vs Polyester/polyethylene foam filters (minor rant)

JMorgan

Member
Joined
18 Oct 2015
Messages
111
Location
Leeds West Yorkshire
Having spent many hours of fruitless searching I'm hoping that someone here can point me in the right direction to get hold of some decent quality polyether foam/sponge filters. Possibly in Germany or the Netherlands?

Roughly 18 months ago I quite suddenly needed to expand the number of tanks to cope with growing out a few hundred angelfish fry. At that time I just got hold of what I thought were OK sponge filters - the sort typically sold on amazon and eBay, but which seem pretty universal at my LFS and other online stores. They are not terrible, but nor are they good quality. After less than two years of use with regular servicing, they are already beginning to lose proper elasticity and "bounce" making them increasingly difficult to clean and less effective with every month that passes.

Ted Judy has a good video describing the difference between polyether and polyester foams for anyone interested: The relevant bit starts about 5 minutes in.

Since I broadly dislike the idea of "throwaway" products I've been researching this over the last few months and it seems so far to be a fairly cynical policy to sell filters made from polyethylene, not so much because its substantially cheaper, but because it will eventually just stop working and is then impossible to restore, forcing punters to buy again. As Ted describes, polyether can be restored even with quite harsh chemicals and he's had the same filters running for ten years plus no problem.

Having written to UK based companies selling polyether foam (on far too large a scale for the likes of me) it turns out that EMW Filtertechnik GmbH, the German source of polyether foam branded as Poret foam, touted by numerous USA based you-tubers and sold in the USA by Swiss Tropicals, is not in fact manufactured by EMW Filtertechnik, who are just "convertors" of the foam. In plain English that means they get hold of the foam in large sheets and cut it up, branding it as "Poret" and investing it with miraculous powers in the process, when it is in reality just bog standard polyether foam, minus additives that would make it unsuitable for aquarists.

This makes it all the more absurd from the perspective of air miles and carbon footprint to import back to the UK by buying from Swiss Tropicals in the USA a product made in Europe, probably Germany. Even more absurdly the only other source I've found is a bloke in New Zealand - which is beyond ridiculous.

That all said I have spoken (briefly and in passing) to UK hobbyists who've imported decent polyether foam filters from Germany, but those German websites I've found either don't seem to export to the UK or don't offer any information regarding what the filters are made of: polyethylene and polyether look pretty much the same in a typical online store photo!

So please if you know of a European company website that sells a decent quality polyether sponge filter let me know - I'm looking for both the basic round or rectangular shapes and also sheets of foam to use with HMF set ups - as I also think its pretty silly to be paying for convoluted or profiled foam where one is essentially paying extra for the foam they've cut away, AKA . . . air!

That's surely a step beyond paying manufacturers to add water to dry ferts!

cheers
 
I wrote to them some time ago - they really only supply manufacturers, I don't remember the amount exactly but their minimum order was around £500.00 which I guess might even make sense if you were building a large fish room or opening a store, but not for half a dozen aquariums :)
 
Possibly in Germany or the Netherlands?
http://www.vancranenbroek.nl/
Oddly, it's a cheap discount store selling both quality products but also lot of cheap unbranded crap. They have a large pond hardware section but no fish. Anyway also selling large mats filter sponges 50x50 cm, you have to cut to size yourself. Might want to give that a go. I have no beef with their sponges, their in my sump and i find them ok. But maybe its sumps need less cleaning..

And buying a 50x50 cm mat for i believe around €15.. That's a lot of sponge for me, for years to come.. 1 little eheim sponge in a box fitting the canister cost €4.95 in the lfs and than need 3. o_O
 
Oh i forgot and for Germany i could advise this. They also sell large mats.
https://www.wasserflora.de/filtertechnik/filtermaterial-w125
They do mainly only webshop, need to make an apointment to visit and pick up orders. Unfortunately the competition forced them to close their LFS.
Liked to go there they were are pretty good and have a huge collection. But also no more fish since all goes exclusively on line now.
 
Hi Marcel - thanks for the wasserflora link. Ive had a quick look and its great that for once someone is saying that the sheets are polyether. I haven't seen some of the air driven filter brands they have elsewhere and I always live in hope that some of those might be polyether too, though I doubt it - I'll have to write to them and ask.

In the meantime I've found http://www.aquaristikschneider.de who I've written to via Google translate and it looks promising as he will post to the UK and has confirmed the filters are polyether. That said I'm leaning toward getting a 10cm thick sheet and just making as many as I want.
cheers
 
@JMorgan I'm looking at setting up a tank in the near future with a matten filter, did you have any luck with finding polyether foam at a reasonable cost?
 
@JMorgan I'm looking at setting up a tank in the near future with a matten filter, did you have any luck with finding polyether foam at a reasonable cost?
No I haven't as yet had much luck - that said I haven't been trying terribly hard - things like installing bathrooms and boarding out the attic being just a tad higher on Mrs M's priority list than fishy related things.

It would seem the way forward - when I have time to wade through the various sites - is to go with importing from Germany or the Nederlands as per Edvet's link above. That's how I know other folks have got themselves decent foam filtration in the past. Obviously there's a bit of a language barrier, but I have made contact with a couple of online stores in Germany and they seem quite willing to ship to the UK and deal with the vagaries of Google's translations.

I'll post back here when I get things sorted as I'll be ordering half a dozen air lift type filters and probably a sheet of foam.
 
Thanks for the update. You wouldn't have thought it would be so difficult to find it but you can find threads going back donkey's years trying to find Poret type foam (or even straight up Poret) at a reasonable price in the UK. Somebody is missing out on an opportunity. One of the site sponsors maybe if someone on here has contact to the necessary person?
 
VELDA is a Dutch pond equipment wholesaler supplying retailers internationaly.. They have several types of large filtermats in their collection in different PPI and thicknes..

These are the 50x50x 2 cm Velda filter mats
ve-142233-50-x50x5_2.jpg


Anyway, VELDA has it, doesn't mean every retailer stocks them obviously demand probably isn't high enough.. But any Velda retailer regularly ordering supplies from them can easily get them i guess, place an order at an UK Velda retailer.

https://www.aquatix-2u.co.uk/brands-velda/

:)
 
I've found a UK company that nearly suits at http://www.thefoamshop.co.uk/category/193/RETICULATED--FOAM

The only caveat is they only do 10, 30 & 45ppi foam whereas I was looking for 20ppi. You can input your own sizes (so no paying for waste) and it's fish safe reticulated polyether foam (no flame retardant). I checked with them and a 75mm thick piece is one block as against sticking multiple sheets together. Decent price too at £27.39 for a 64cm x 60cm x 7.5cm sheet. Now I've got to decide whether to go for the 30ppi or not (10ppi is going to be too porous I think)
 
Hi Colin - good find!
Is it possible to stick sheets together? I assume you'd lose a little porosity, but not very much if it was just spot glued . . . we all know super glue is fish safe, but wonder if this actually holds longer term?
That said 75mm is a pretty good thickness - I've only seen 30mm and occasionally 50mm elsewhere
thanks
 
Hi Colin - good find!
Is it possible to stick sheets together? I assume you'd lose a little porosity, but not very much if it was just spot glued . . . we all know super glue is fish safe, but wonder if this actually holds longer term?
That said 75mm is a pretty good thickness - I've only seen 30mm and occasionally 50mm elsewhere
thanks
I was thinking aquarium sealant if necessary with a thin bead around the perimeter and a zigzag across the middle. You'd lose minimal surface area.
 
5 cm is plenty for a mattenfilter. I use quite coarse material to make sure the filter can stay untouched for long times (>1 year)
Would 5cm be stiff enough to stay standing when using a piece 60cm by 60cm say?
 
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