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DIY Sponge Filters?


Fish Folk
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I’d like to hear from anyone who makes their own DIY sponge filters. Where do you get your sponges from? What building process works best for you? Do you follow a step-by-step build? 

We’ve made a few, but have never felt really satisfied with them long haul. 

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Well before I became desensitized to spending money on fish, I just took some large pre-filter sponges from Amazon that I’d bought for something else, cut them in half, zip-tied the bottom end shut, and stuck an air stone in the middle. The air stone was heavy enough to sink the sponge. I have no idea how well they worked compared to the coop’s sponge filters, but it worked at least a little bit!

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So, I have done sponge prefilters and filters from the long rectangle Cubematerial pieces of Poret foam in the Cubefilter section of Swiss Tropicals.  I cut the foam to the general size I need with a razor, and then use a hole saw to create the spot for the tube to the depth I need.  Make sure the drill is set on reverse so the hole saw won't bind and tear the foam.  Cut the hole slightly smaller than the tube diameter and you should be set.

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An easier DIY filter would probably be a box filter.  

You could take a tupperware container and add holes where necessary, and fill the inside with sponges, filter floss, etc.  Add a bit of tubing for a lift tube in the top, punch a bunch of holes in the side/bottom for intakes, and presto magic, you have a DIY filter.  

I think a standard sponge filter relies too much on specifically shaped bits to work effectively, and the box filter design allows you to more easily control the path of the water through it.  I know growing up, we kind of built our own box filter for a pond instead of going with a purchased one because it is easy to get it to be doing its thing right.

Otherwise, if I were married to the sponge filter design, I might just go for intake sponge off amazon -> pvc pipe from hardware store -> seal bottom of tube with cap or silicone -> cut long vertical holes with dremel or something to match size of sponge, leaving length above to act as a lift tube.  But, that's just hypothetical, and I'm sure I'd run into issues I'd have to work out.

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Question came up as a Rachel O’Leary video came up on our YouTube recommendations. Looks like a DIY sponge she pulled from a little outdoor pond.

Weve always admired the DIY sponges featured in the fishroom videos from @WhitecloudDynasty 
 

We tried building them, following suggestions from Joey (King of DIY), but didn’t find the correct sponge material. They eventually disintegrated.

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10 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

Question came up as a Rachel O’Leary video came up on our YouTube recommendations. Looks like a DIY sponge she pulled from a little outdoor pond.

Weve always admired the DIY sponges featured in the fishroom videos from @WhitecloudDynasty 
 

We tried building them, following suggestions from Joey (King of DIY), but didn’t find the correct sponge material. They eventually disintegrated.

9A65A52E-6742-4045-A3EB-901D9924E376.jpeg

EFDD6C3D-709F-43FB-AFC8-685A2FC1A695.png

68039C6B-1E6C-4D93-A544-B0CF1A17438D.jpeg

20B70F07-5F43-4477-9464-E68E2F0A0C02.jpeg

I buy all of mine, not sure if I can say where I bought them on here but the beautiful thing about these sponge are their jetlifter...they move more water than any airstone can 

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