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Fine Sponge Filter vs Coarse Sponge Filter


MaxM
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I'm on #teamcoarse for a number of reasons. I am not using them as primary filters as much as back ups. I have decorated or planted tanks with substrate and that is the main source for beneficial bacteria. I don't like having to clean them more often than once a month. I mostly want mechanical filtration to keep debris out of my canisters or HOBs.

Now, if I wanted to use one as the only filtration, in a bare tank, with no other source for beneficial bacteria, that I didn't mind clean every week... the fine filters are better. They do have more surface area for beneficial bacteria and capture finer particles and should be rinsed in tank water to keep the bacteria alive. 

Like Cory said though, that's not what most people use them for. If you are setting up a 50 tank fish room for YouTube, and your family will work in it for free, and you're planning extensive weekly maintenance like Jason does. I  would also suggest fine filters. If you have less than a dozen, that's not an income generating business, and have substrate and decorations / plants then you'll probably like coarse ones better.

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I just picked up a couple last week, favoring coarse for the reason that @Cory mentions. Also as mentioned above, I do think the fine hold more BB, and as @Mr. Ed's Aquatics says, that might be a reason to consider them in a bare bottom tank... like the two tanks I want to setup for breeding angels... @Cory do you think the coarse might be an issue for fry?  Thanks!

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Once the coop came out with their coarse sponge filters I'll never use fine again its a night and day difference especially when you go to pick one of the fine ones up after a few weeks of use it will feel like 50 lbs lol it makes a bigger mess and it takes for ever to squeeze out the mulm from it. You pretty much never have to worry about flow with the coarse ones basically and the surface area for bacteria doesnt matter. I use them in bare tanks with no issue your tank is only going to produce the amount of bacteria it needs and it wont just be on the filters also don't worry about fry unless you are pumping an absurd amount of air which would be an issue either way.

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1 hour ago, Bill said:

do you think the coarse might be an issue for fry? 

I've used coarse sponges with everything from teeny-tiny honey gourami fry to platy fry to cherry shrimp babies, and I don't recall having any problems because the flow was so gentle. That being said, I didn't have the air cranked up to a really high flow rate, so maybe that helped. 

1-day-old honey gourami fry with sponge filter in background:

384193416_honeygouramifry.png.49ce10141b36ad4daa2e4ceafd2d45a1.png

 

Edited by Irene
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1 hour ago, Bill said:

you think the coarse might be an issue for fry? 

I think it could depending on the type of fish, size of fry, and the rate of flow. I don't think it is an apocalyptic fry slaying machine. The pores are large enough that you can see the inner chamber. I have witnessed baby shrimp, baby snails, and even pygmy corydoras fry entering and exiting the sponge. Clearly it doesn't suck them in, but I think if they ventured far enough into it that they might not get back out. In the picture below you can see small Malaysian trumpet snails inside the sponge.USER_SCOPED_TEMP_DATA_orca-image--1756702136.jpeg.220f448dce859a0f2fb02132b1c5e5e0.jpeg

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Very energetic topic.  I have not used the fine sponge filter, but have used fine filter material in my HOB.  It fouled super fast, then was not even as effective as the course.  For my money, course is the better option unless you are addressing a specific problem.  Then there are other options that are more effective.  
 

 

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Guess my question is why does it have to be one or the other. I don't have many tanks but the ones I do i run an aquarium coop sponge and a hikari bacto sponge, each with its own nano pump. I love em both for different reasons. The fine spone gets clogged up every 2 weeks or so which is what i want it to do. Its awesome at mechanical filtration, so much so I don't need to bag it before I take it out of the tank just pull it up by the air line and have never gotten a cloud of muck off it. But as those fine pores start to clog any bacteria in there are dying off which is why I love the course sponge. It never clogs, like ever, a year after putting it in the tank and it still looks like the day I put it in there. I have never cleaned it. With all that surface area and and water movement, I'm pretty sure that thing is a biological filtering power house. 

Where one falls the other rises, which is why I love both. But I do have to say the AqCoop spone looks better, which is why I bought a second just to throw a fine sponge on it and they both match and blend into the tank. But I'm weird like that. 

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With my little MF10 internal filters, the default media is fine foam, and when it gets clogged, the impeller pulls it enough to compress it up into the top of the sponge chamber. I swapped with AquaClear 20 foam, which does not have this problem.

I am adding more and more Co-Op sponge filters too.

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20 hours ago, Aubrey said:

I don't think it is an apocalyptic fry slaying machine. 

LOL. I don't either, but it probably presents an opportunity to lose a few. I have one fine and one medium in my quarantine tank with an unexpected spawn of angel fry, and I know angelsplus (where I got these active filters) recommended the fine for fry. In the near future I plan to move the two breeding pairs into bare bottom tanks with fine sponge filters and potted plants (soil bottom, sand on top). Unfortunately, I think the size of the gravel I had in my community tank where the other pair of angels spawned WAS a fry slayer. That won't happen again!

As @Cory said, the coop filters were designed for best case majority use, and they actually look great. I'd use them for anything but breeding tanks. 
 

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There's coarse sponges and then there are coarse sponges. I have some Marineland Penguin Pros that I was using the Marineland course intake sponge on and I found that every 10 days +/- due to reduced flow I'd have to pull the intake sponges to clean them. I swapped them out for the coarse CoOp sponges and I'm now going about a month + between cleanings. 

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