Box Filters - Love 'em, Hate 'em, Never tried 'em?

[pedrofisk]

I have very soft water here in NYC and I've gotten tired of having to keep a media bag of crushed coral sitting in my bare bottom aquariums. I decided to give a cheap box filter a try loaded with the crush coral instead of the air stone. This way it is doing double duty and I left the course sponge it came with in it too. This is my first time using them and so far so good.

What's everyone else's opinion on the usefulness of box filters? Do you have any good hot rod tricks?

 

[Cory]

I"m not a fan of how frequent they need to be serviced. I ran the whole store and some of my fish room after getting the bug from Greg Sage's fish room. As you can see today, I no longer use them. I like servicing sponge filters more. 

[Robert]

I would agree with Cory that servicing them can be a pain, especially if your running a sponge or poly material in them. They do work and I love that they can be fairly customizable. I run two big box filters in my koi/goldfish tote along with a Ehiem canister. In my boxes I just loaded them up with ceramic media and dunk them in a bowl of water every once in a while to clean them.

 

 

[pedrofisk]

27 minutes ago, Cory said:

I"m not a fan of how frequent they need to be serviced. I ran the whole store and some of my fish room after getting the bug from Greg Sage's fish room. As you can see today, I no longer use them. I like servicing sponge filters more. 

@Cory what do you think of my idea to use them to deliver hardness from the crushed coral? My thought is it will be more active then having it in a media bag since I don't want it loose. It is of course Aquarium Coop crushed coral.

[Daniel]

Back in the day (1960s) we didn't have have all fancy smantzy choices you young whipsnappers have grown up with. We proudly put our Longlife box filters in our Metaframe slate bottom tanks and were amazed when we saw the first Metaframe Dynaflo HOBs (it was impossible to get those siphone tubes going). And in the winter we had to walk to the LFS (it was Barncle Bill's if remember correctly) uphill both ways in the snow.

[Dean’s Fishroom]

1 hour ago, pedrofisk said:

I have very soft water here in NYC and I've gotten tired of having to keep a media bag of crushed coral sitting in my bare bottom aquariums. I decided to give a cheap box filter a try loaded with the crush coral instead of the air stone. This way it is doing double duty and I left the course sponge it came with in it too. This is my first time using them and so far so good.

What's everyone else's opinion on the usefulness of box filters? Do you have any good hot rod tricks?

Using them as a filter works but a sponge filter I feel works better and is easier and quicker to clean. However using them full of coral or other media to buffer you water works great, and you can have multiple ones just sitting ready to go. I've done this in the past with coral, peatmoss, ammonia remover and even carbon. I will say I don't use them anymore, but that doesn't mean they don't work.

[Errk25]

The last box filter I had was probably in the 60's or 70's and they worked fine. Boy, that was a long time ago. Haha!

[pedrofisk]

34 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Back in the day (1960s) we didn't have have all fancy smantzy choices you young whipsnappers have grown up with. We proudly put our Longlife box filters in our Metaframe slate bottom tanks and were amazed when we saw the first Metaframe Dynaflo HOBs (it was impossible to get those siphone tubes going). And in the winter we had to walk to the LFS (it was Barncle Bill's if remember correctly) uphill both ways in the snow.

In fairness I got my first aquarium in the 70s with an under gravel filter. My dad still had his metal frame from the 50s but I am pretty sure they one he set up for me he just made himself. I still had to walk uphill both ways wherever I went.

[pedrofisk]

4 minutes ago, Dean’s Fishroom said:

Using them as a filter works but a sponge filter I feel works better and is easier and quicker to clean. However using them full of coral or other media to buffer you water works great, and you can have multiple ones just sitting ready to go. I've done this in the past with coral, peatmoss, ammonia remover and even carbon. I will say I don't use them anymore, but that doesn't mean they don't work.

Those were my thoughts exactly, thanks for the confirmation. The aquariums (and ponds) still have their sponge filters and I am using these for the coral buffering. Maybe I'll just take that extra bit of sponge out anyway.

[Bill Smith]

I'm playing with box filters again, hot rodding them with multiple densities of foam in one experiment.

Have to agree with @Cory, in the sense that I think it comes down to preference for servicing.I would agree that sponge filters are probably faster and less effort, but even with the bag technique for the sponge filter, the box filter is a cleaner service for me.

Bill

[DaveSamsell]

@pedrofisk, I have been conducting some comparisons between several sponge & box filter designs.  My personal preference would be using a sleek sponge filter I.E. like the ones from Aquarium Co-Op as the main filter source; with the possible addition of a small, specialized box filter, if desired.  Perhaps filled with the media of your choice for more individualized applications, for fine tuning.

From an "ease of use" standpoint & overall effectiveness, sponge filters do win, hands down, IMO.  The sponge filters sold by @Cory, at Aquarium Co-Op, I feel, have a good blend of form, fit & function that is simplistic, but very effective in its intended application.

@Daniel, "fancy smantzy", that's a phrase I haven't heard in awhile, lol.  

[shkote]

I'm up to 33 tanks now, but I do still have box filters in 3 of them. Specifically an African Dwarf frog tank, a shrimp tank, and my Ameca splendens tank. Greg Sage still recommends them over sponge filters with Goodeids, but the Amecas are the only ones that have a box filter, and I don't think they notice the difference. If I had soft water I would probably use them for crushed coral as well.

I bought them for nostalgia purposes. Same reason I bought a throwback Atari. Neither of them turned out to be all that I remembered. 

[LC Roszell]

So I bought one in an attempt have a water polisher running off of air. I got the biggest one Lee makes that actually contains all of the water that is sucked into it so it releases very little gunk when pulled up. Two layers of the coarse sponge square the coop sells with one layer of the white pad under them. It worked really well for what I needed in my 90 gallon. I do wish they were weighted on the bottom because they tend to float if you don't get them jammed down into the sand. I ended up ordering 2 more. I think because of location in my 125 they don't do as well cleaning out the gunk from the water. I do still like them though and will continue to use them. I keep crushed coral in my sand but would think it would be a good way to raise the ph if the crushed coral was in the box. Once I get around to making them weighted I think servicing will be much easier for me. 

[pedrofisk]

@LC Roszell you can always put a little gravel in the bottem to weigh them down.

[Tre]

On 8/7/2020 at 4:21 PM, Daniel said:

Back in the day (1960s) we didn't have have all fancy smantzy choices you young whipsnappers have grown up with. We proudly put our Longlife box filters in our Metaframe slate bottom tanks and were amazed when we saw the first Metaframe Dynaflo HOBs (it was impossible to get those siphone tubes going). And in the winter we had to walk to the LFS (it was Barncle Bill's if remember correctly) uphill both ways in the snow.

I’m an 80s kid you did walk to school and had box filters as a kid. It always amazed me how you could customize those buggers. I think they are especially good for uses like this where you’re dealing with specific needs and don’t want an HOB. 
shrimp would be delighted. 
I’m still amazed at some of the stuff now. I’m in love with LED lights!

[Hanpan]

Hi from Queens 🙋‍♀️

I use a box filter for my QT tank. 🙂