First tank

[Maf 2500]

Only one sponge is not an issue. Your tank is well planted and all the heavy lifting of filtration will be done by your plants.

Totally agree with the above. Foam is an excellent media for bio-filtration which in combo with the substrate and plants in the tank is more than adequate.

The cartridges that come with your original filter are borderline useless tat that is designed to block up after a certain amount of use forcing you to buy expensive replacements. Foam has the advantage of being 100% cleanable and with a very long service life (years).

 

[BarrWarr]

That’s great, thanks both. So that Allpondssolution filter with just the black foam but a higher flow rate will be perfectly fine?

 

[Maf 2500]

That’s great, thanks both. So that Allpondssolution filter with just the black foam but a higher flow rate will be perfectly fine?

I don't see why not. The tank is fairly small and well planted. The carbon and snake oil in the cartridges of the original filter are not needed and may even be detrimental in some situations.

If you are so inclined you can probably even mod it to get rid of the casing over the foam and use a larger foam block. (Longer intervals between cleaning, more volume of filter media)

 

[BarrWarr]

Thanks. When you say modify, do you mean so it looks like those air filters I have seen? The only decent shop near me has these in every tank.

 

[Maf 2500]

I meant something like this where you could run the top part of the filter as a powerhead atop a tube and a block of foam (I think they are out of stock, it is just for visualising the idea):
HMF Biological Sponge Block Filter for Power Head 10x10x30cm - Envobee Shrimp .
I don't know if this is similar to in the "decent shop". The fact that they are the decent shop tells you that their approach works.

The mod is likely unnecessary and the new filter will work fine as is. I was just throwing it out there because looking at the filter, that is the sort of thing I would do....

 

[BarrWarr]

Ah, ok - that’s similar but the ones in the shop have bubbles coming out. I quite like your idea but I would have no idea how or where to get the right things!

 

[Maf 2500]

I quite like your idea but I would have no idea how or where to get the right things!

It will work fine straight out of the box, but nice to know you have the option in the future. Let us know how you get on.

If you get the new filter run it along with the old one for a while until it is established. To kick start the foam on the new filter you could rinse the foam of the old filter in a container of tank water and then rinse the brand new foam in the dirty water to innoculate it with bio-organisms.