# Sponge filter for 55g



## Fishtail76 (Oct 17, 2013)

I have seen some members here say that they use sponge filters in there tanks along with a canister filter. I just purchased a Fluval 306 for 55g freshwater planted community tank and would like to add a sponge filter but don't know anything about them. I would really appreciate some advice. Will it help? Do I need it? Which filter would be a good choice? Is one brand better designed than others?

Tom


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I use sponge prefilters on my HOBs,but I'm not sure that is what you mean?I also use lots of air driven sponges on my breedere fry tanks and they do no harm on any tank.
ATI Sponge Filters
Kensfish is a great supplier of many things!Including larger air pumps.


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## Fishtail76 (Oct 17, 2013)

Thank you for the reply, Tom. I believe it was one of your threads that I was referring about. I was thinking about one of the air driven sponge filter. I used one on a small tank many years ago, just was not sure if there was much benefit using one in a 55g tank. I know more filtration can not hurt.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

The sponge is the lowest tech most efficient filter going.The real pros(fish farms large breeders) use nothing else.Educated keepers know they are going to make water changes and bio and mechancial is all that is needed.The sponge (air driven) is the easiest to maintain and works great.Even in my reefs and large fw sumps ,a sponge is my bio material of choice.All the other bio's are a huge waste of money.If you are cycle(0 ammonia and 0 nitrites) then we are all going to get nitrates.I have them in all my sponge filtered tanks,with proven results.So besides the water changes anyone who used an air driven sponge could only say they are proven efficient(and reliable).


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Yeah, they do very little for chemical filtration to pull stuff out of the water, but for bio filtration they are hard to beat.


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## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

I use air driven sponges in all my tanks. I use 80gal capacity filters for every 20gal of water and along with water changes run a HOB over noght on each tank once monthly. I have been doing it this way for well over 20 years. I also used the same sponge filters in my kiddie pools this summer and they worked great. I had a 10' x 10' x 18" pool that started with less than 30 Endlers and ended up with close to 500 in the fall when I removed them. Same with Least Killies and Jacks. If you keep shrimp, crayfish or want to breed egg layers that have micro fry the sponge is a all you can eat source of organisms. Keep in mind, if you can set up two sponges in a tank you can always move one to a new tank cycling or a tank having water quality issues. 

Beat of luck and happy holidays


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## Avraptorhal (Jan 24, 2013)

Unless you are overstocked in the 55 I don't see a need for any more filtration.

I agree with all the above answers. I used to scoff at the air driven sponge filter as a toy that makes pretty bubbles, but after getting some experience I am a strong proponent of sponge filters. In retrospect I spent money that wasn't needed on my 206 for my 29G since all I have in it is the bio foam it came with and the Fluval Biomax it came with. A sponge filter would have served the same purpose. 

When I got surprise batches of platy fry I added an elite double sponge in an attempt to get more bio filtering. When I got lazy and missed a WC the params stayed in the good zone. So the sponge filter seems to have done its job.

If you do decide to use a sponge filter in your 55 Amazon has a large selection of sponge filters as does eBay.

Good luck !!


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