Hi, everybody Joey here again and welcome back
so today
I'm going to show you how to build one of the best
Aquarium filters that you can have for your aquarium the sponge filter
Now the sponge filter has been in the hobby for a very long time
but for good reason
It's cheap its effective, and it's simple to use
[while] not everybody wants to run them as their primary source of filtration, just due to technology these days
Sponge Filters still have their uses in the hobby now
I personally always have a sponge filter running somewhere
whether it's in an aquarium in a sump somewhere within my water, I have a sponge filter running that way I
Always have a cycled filter just in case I get a new fish [I] can set up a quarantine tank
or if a fish is sick or injured I then can set up a hospital tank or
If my fish tough spot decide to spawn and have fry or babies, then I can actually set up a nursery tank as well
Having a sponge filter running at all times
[means] I'm ready for anything
[anytime] even [a] power outage if my power goes out I can simply plug in my
Sponge filter into [an] airport. I'm sorry a battery powered air pump and my fish will be okay of
Course I'm definitely going to want to make sure that I'm following the tips that I outlined
in the video on how [to] survive a power outage as well a
Sponge filters
Simplicity makes them very appealing given the large surface area that a typical sponge filter offers it not only makes them a great
biological filter but a mechanical filter as well
Now I'm going to show you how I make my sponge filters, and I make them for any sized aquarium
I'm also going to show you how to keep multiple sponge filter cycled at any given point without taking up any extra room, so
[let's] get started the first thing you're going to need is obviously a sponge now
Sponges come in multiple porosity and what that means is how many pores it has within the actual sponge
They're rated on a scale of PPI which is pores per inch
The ideal pores per inch that you'd be low looking for is about ten to Thirty
luckily
Sponges are plentiful in this hobby whether you get them at the pet store [or] online?
They're basically sold at any aquatic store. You can also use pre-existing
Sponges that are meant to be used in other filters
Namely the Aqua clear hang on the back filter those sponges that they come with or that you can buy in addition are
Great for a sponge filter next up some PVC pipe
[I] like to use 3/4 inch PVC. Pipe because it allows me to slide in a
[Airstone] and
Have it freely move around if I need [it] to
It's also not too big to be obstructive and take up too much space within the sponge
You're also going to need an air pump obviously
some airline tubing and
a basic Air stone nothing too fancy as
Well as the PVC. You're going to need a couple of PVC adapters one is an end cap
Basically this just goes [on] the end and caps off a PVC
You'll also need a [90-degree] elbow
You can also use a 45-degree elbow. This is a must and I'll show you why [later]?
You'll need to get them the same size as the PVC that you're using so in my case these are three quarter-inch adapters
You're also going to need some silicone as always I use ge silicone one window and door
lastly you're going to need a
ceramic tile
ideally you'll pick one that is the same color [as] your
Substrate so as it blends in a little bit easier when it's in your [aquarium]
Also picking a size that is the same size of your sponge is ideal as well that way you don't have an overbearing [liebig]
Ceramic tile [and] only a tiny sponge it just aesthetically looks better
So that's it for supplies now
Let's get started with the build we're first going to build it and then I'm going to show you how it works and why it?
Works so first of all you want to start off with your actual sponge now you have a few options here
I actually have [a] hot knife
So I'm able to drill in a little hole in the actual sponge and I get a really nice size
It's slightly [all] [er] than the actual PVC. So when the PVC goes in there
it stays on there really snugly, but not obstructive if
You don't have a hot knife which most people don't feel free to use some scissors or a knife to stab it into multiple
directions until the PVC is able to actually slide in easily with
[the] sponge now prepared we can move on to the next step
That's where your ceramic tile comes in place before you even start using it
It's good to wash it and probably soak it in warm water to get any Debris and any
Coatings that are left on it sometimes there's a powder coating on the bottom
The purpose of the ceramic tile is very simple
It gives it the actual sponge filter something to hold on to and it weighs it down and holds it right in place
So you're going to take your bottom cap and you're going to silicone it
directly to the ceramic Tile
if
You don't have access to ceramic tiles. You could use a piece of glass
Ideally about six millimeter just sand the edges so it's not sharp once the end cap is silicone in place
[you'll] will have to wait about 24 hours for that to cure before you can move on to the next step
although you can get quite a bit done and
Pretty much complete the sponge filter before waiting for it to cure. You just can't put it in the aquarium yet
So the next thing you're going to want [to] do is take your PVC pipe and drill multiple holes in it. I like to drill
[quarter] inch holes within my PVC, and to realize where you're going to need to drill those holes is very simple
place it on to the end cap
Take a pen and mark off where the end cap and the PVC pipe meet
put the sponge on it and
Around the top of [the] sponge Mark where the sponge is
So now when you take the PVC off
You now have two marks where that sponge will be and that's where you're going to drill your holes
You want to drill them about a quarter-inch from the lines in?
This way that this way when the water sucking through it's only sucking water through the sponge and not [blower] above it
with your [90-degree] elbow or
45-degree Elbow
You drill a hole in the exact top of it the reason being is [because] we're going to pass the air line through it
So that hold needs to be slightly smaller
[than] the actual airline tubing that way the airline tubing is held snugly in place and
It allows it [to] be held firmly so the air stone doesn't move up and down
Now we can put it all together we'll first start off with the 90 degree elbow and putting the airline through it
So that's held in there nice and snugly
The Air stone then inserts into the actual PVC pipe
And you want this air stone right to the bottom of the actual PVC pipe so it's flush with the bottom
From there put your sponge filter on or the actual sponge then insert it onto the base
So that's it
Now you plug it in so some of the key features here are very simple
We have a sponge as large as we want it to be
We have a weighted base and that cap that we put on the bottom elevates the sponge up
We're just pushing the sponge down to the top of that cap, and it sits snugly. It can't move up or down [anymore]
That's going to allow complete circulation all around the sponge filter the 90 degree elbow serves two purposes
One to hold the airline in place right at the bottom [too]. It's also going to offer the availability of
Directing where that air where that water flow is going to go in your aquarium?
You can even put an extension on the actual elbow to push it further away [from] the actual
sponge filter
So the way a sponge filter works is simple
That airline Tube is going to have air pumping through it as that air rises through the PVC pipe
It's creating suction behind those air bubbles
All those holes that we drilled in the PVC are going to draw water in through them
But that water first has to pass through this sponge
So what's happening? There [is] as Bacteria or beneficial Bacteria
cultivates the sponge and that water passes over at the nitrogen cycle world will occur as
the water exits, it's
Fully filtered water that has been mechanically and biologically filtered now
How are we going to keep?
Multiple sponge filters cycled and how do we rate them well for a block of sponge that is approximately?
four by four by [two]
That should be good for aquariums up to about [Thirty] gallons
so if you if you stack sponges on top of each other one after the other you can get
quite a decent [size] sponge filter rated up to 90 gallons or
Even more depending on the size of your sponge as well as the air pump
Now to cycle a lot of them at once and to keep them cycled within your aquarium everything works the same
Except you're going to have a longer pipe with holes drilled in [it] of [course] you're also going to have
even more sponge filters
So it goes together very simply
Goes identically as to the way the smaller one did
except
We're just going to keep stacking them on top
Of each other just like that
Then your air pump goes right in
you want your air stone all the way to the bottom and
Again, you can add an extension on there so that the filtered water goes further away from the actual sponge
So now when you need a filter you keep your smaller
[stand] pipe available, and that should already be [silicone] to another piece of tile, all you'd be missing is the actual sponge
So you'd have another 90-degree elbow as well, and maybe even an air pump and all you would do is simply
Take off one of the sponges leaving the remaining ones in your aquarium
And then you have another cycled sponge filter at any given point
So that's it folks. That's how I make my sponge filters now
You're probably wondering about overall cost anywhere between four to five dollars is what you should expect for this built
Anyways guys that was it. I hope you enjoyed the video. I definitely want to thank you for watching and we'll see [us] next time