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Any Foam Experts?! 🤣

JMorgan said:
I can't be 100% on this because it's very hard to tell from a photo, however, because they don't describe their foam as polyether, it's fairly safe to assume it isn't. This is simply because it does tend to cost a bit more so those who are selling it make a point of justifying the price hike, by telling you how much better it is. They're not wrong.

This is made more complex by the fact that there are better and worse qualities of polyethylene foam too. I've bought sponge filters with such atrociously poor foam (feels kind of greasy, deforms and even tears very easily) that they have almost no integral strength and kinda collapse on themselves within a few months. Compared to that really crappy sort of foam the polyethylene foam Finest-Filters sell is great stuff. But it's still short-lived compared to polyether.
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I’ve used a variety of foams over the years, mainly in canisters and not had problems with any of them. They’ve all been relatively inexpensive compared to what you can pay. Maybe I’ve been lucky?
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
I’ve used a variety of foams over the years, mainly in canisters and not had problems with any of them. They’ve all been relatively inexpensive compared to what you can pay. Maybe I’ve been lucky?
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Some years ago now a bloke with the handle 'pond guru' did a whole series of videos on YouTube about the benefits of foams with an undulating surface and how you should get rid of the 'rubbish' that came with your cannister filter and 'upgrade' it by putting in this undulating foam because it had, 'more surface area'.

In reality the important surface area of a foam is its internal structure and a function of its volume, and since an undulating foam has foam actually removed and its volume reduced to create the undulations . . . this is just wrong. (BTW the pond guru guy also had some very much more sensible ideas too)

Beyond that, a decent high quality polyethylene foam will last a good few years, especially if well looked after and assuming your fish don't get sick. By contrast a polyether foam will not only last decades, you can also use pretty harsh disinfectants on it without compromising its internal structure. My point is that if you want to do a genuinely worthwhile 'upgrade' on the foams that come pre-supplied with most filters, then polyether foam is a good option to consider. Personally I wouldn't recommend throwing away anything that's working perfectly well, just that when you get to a point where you have to replace it, polyether is worth it IME.
 
I took delivery of some foam today from Envobee shrimp who sell on ebay and I think were linked earlier in the thread. I can confirm that what they sell is (as advertised) genuine Poret polyether type foam. Looking on their website it seems a lot of sizes of foam are out of stock, other items out of stock, and no livestock currently available, so I am wondering if they are running down their business and just selling off their remaining stock? I hope not!

@JMorgan you will be pleased to know that the German company Oase use genuine Poret polyether foam in their filters. I have used their pond filters for over 30 years and I can tell you the sponges have a very hard life but last for many years. They moved into the aquarium market 5 or 6 years ago and of course still use the good quality foam as standard.
 
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