Filter sponge maintenance with SHRIMP

[Dawn T]

Okay, I'm sure some of you will get a laugh out of this admission, but I'm going to make it anyway. The filter intake sponge on my HOB on the Endler tank needs to a good squeeze out, but I'm finding myself putting it off. Why? Shrimplets.

Last time I performed that task, it took way more time than it probably should have, because I found myself carefully removing shrimplets and trying to make sure I got them all before doing the maintenance. Yes, I actually stood in my kitchen and carefully removed shrimplets from a coarse sponge before squeezing it out. Took about half an hour. 😳

So, to my question - I know a bunch of you have shrimp and use sponge filters in one capacity or another. Is there a better way to do this than I've been doing? I don't want to kill the baby shrimp that seem to love the sponge (either by squeezing them or by dumping them onto houseplants along with the water when I'm done), but I need to get that sponge squeezed out good. At the same time, I'd prefer not to spend another half hour making sure I've got them all.

[DaveO]

This is just a thought that I have not tried, so take it for what that's worth. You could use two intake sponges in rotation. Take off dirty sponge no.1 and install clean sponge no.2. Then bait the shrimplets out of no.1 with Repashy or an algae wafer, in a separate container. Maybe you could just leave it in the tank until they come out on their own.

[KBOzzie59]

Get another sponge, just swap them out when needed.  You can also just unplug the HOB when cleaning the sponge.  Removing the poor little shrimplets is more stress than they need.  Ahhh missed the part about them being in the sponge.

Edited December 1, 2021 by KBOzzie59

[Dawn T]

Rotating intake sponges might work. I'll have to order another one, since I just checked and found I don't have any extra ones lying around. It would be easy enough to temporarily place the sponge that needs cleaning into a separate container temporarily to lure the shrimplets out of it.

I'm amazed at how deep into a coarse sponge those little buggers can go! LOL

[CalmedByFish]

How about ditching the "coarse" sponge, and using one with such teeny tiny holes that the shrimplets can't possibly get in? (I've never understood the idea of using coarse sponge to keep out fry. My platy fry easily dart deep inside the coarse sponges to hide.)

A few days ago, I found myself needing a tiny-holed sponge filter right away, but didn't have one. So I pulled the coarse sponge off its green frame, and cut a piece of "fine poly pad" to fit where the sponge would normally go. I held it on by putting rubber bands around the pad. So far, so good!

[Dawn T]

The trade-off there is that the fine sponges clog VERY fast. I got tired of having to squeeze one of those out constantly. I only feed once a day, and not heavily, so the fact it got clogged so easily drove me batty.

[Guppysnail]

I use coarse with my shrimp because fine clog. I swish swish swish very vigorously to shake them loose in tank water in a white bucket then take the sponge to another bucket to squeeze. When all the mulm settles I net out all my shrimplettes and return to the tank. 

Ps I pull the sponge off the plastic to swish it’s more effective 

[StevesFishTanks]

I use a full wall mattenfilter that I dont plan on servicing for a long time. 30ppi. When the time comes to clean it I may just "reset" the tank.

[Dawn T]

Woohoo! Went to AC's site to see about ordering another intake sponge, checked previous order to make sure I bought the right size (NOT trusting my memory right now), and realized there were 2 on that order. Hm... I only have 1 in use, so I dug through my various sponge pieces and parts again. FOUND IT!

Suddenly occurred to me, since I'm going to rotate the old sponge out and the new one in, I might as well just drop the old one into a little 5g plant overflow tank I have in my bedroom. Let the shrimplets loose in there. Nothing in there but plants right now. I'm sure they'll HATE that. 😁