sponge colonies in canisterfilters

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idol1

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 7, 2017
Messages
286
Location
kauai,hawaii
I have colonies of sponge and anemones growing in my canister filters. All my tanks only consist of fish and inverts .They are void of living rock and coral because it is illegal over here. Also I tried All different types of the ceramic and glass biological filter media in one of each tray in the canister filter. Not one anemone or sponge was growing on it. But the natural filter media that I use Had sponge and anemones on them,also nice copepods living in there. I think a lot of this ceramic biomedia they are selling is just high priced junk. No wonder the canister is considered a nitrate factory. I use my long tent. anemones as my water indicators and I haven't had any problems yet. So I would like to know if you think my canisters are dong there job? I also have wet and dry filters on some Tanks.
 
What is your 'natural filter media' ?
If it had sponge and nems on it sounds like it is close to what some call live rock..
'Dead' rock taken from dry areas will become live when bacteria grow in/on them.
Did you purchase your sponges and nems or are they a 'by product/hitch hiker ' of the natural media? Are your sponges 'pineapple ' sponges ? They are very common..
I think the stuff people buy in the name of bio media is silly and a huge waste of money but people are sheep so they follow flock no matter how ignorant..Many members here still think what ever media they choose has some effect ?
Most are looking for a lazy way to not change water and think media will help?
I am the sponge guy with over 1,000g and a successful GBR/EBR breeder and seller...
Ceramic media is only different then a rock in its porosity...Many don't understand that you will only grow as much bacteria as you need and most if not almost all tanks already have PLENTY of surface area for bacteria to thrive if taken proper care of...
True breeders use sponges.
 
The way I stack my filter and I use canisters with 4 trays. So my canister of choice is the cascade. No metal parts. Coarse sponge on the bottom. next 2 trays are coral rubble the most porous I can find mostly catspaw. top tray small bioballs. my coral is processed by bleaching, boiling,soaking,boiling,soaking and sun drying. So no hitchhikers on the coral itself. My hitchhikers come from the solid algea rocks I get to feed the fish. If I clean a filter I do it during a water change I just rinse the sponge out in the old tank water that I'm changing same with the trays some times ill change half of one tray with new coral. reprocess the coral I took out only boiling it ,soaking and sun dry. I use the same set up in my wet and dry filter but a lot more sponges. Have been using this set up since the 60s. Be fore you could get commercial junk. I have been using bioballs before they were comercialy available. Use to get garbage bags full from a friend of mine. They use to use them in the water treatment plant for county drinking water. I figured water is water bacteria is bacteria So it should work in salt.
 
Having Live rock isnt illegal, after all its really just a pile of rocks in a salt water tank. Its the collection of live rock thats illegal. Theres a ton of sources of dry rock, both natural, mined, and man made. Check out bulk reef supply.

What are your water parameters? Without those measurements we cant really say what is working.
 
when I was a importer,Whole sale and retail. Saltwater,Freshwater,reptiles and amphibians. We checked water parameters every 12 hrs. at my place. Now that I'm retired and I have 11 tanks running 3 ponds and a turtle pool, I don't bother. I check copper and salinity. My water changes are frequent. I have one back up 55gal aged and running all the time just in case. I do use protein skimmers and uv steralisers. I spend seventy percent of my time in my fish room. I don't need test kits any more to tell me what is going on in my tanks .My anemone and shrimp. Coral banded and camel backs and anemone,will alert me to a water problem before the fish will. I'm glad to say haven't had any water problems just fish compatability problems,and this always happens after the fish grow up. I am in the process of releasing back in the ocean 3 unicorn tangs 1 convict tang and 1 sergeant major,They have out grown the 125.Always a sad time to let my babies go. Fish that you grew up from babies to almost adult hood.It takes a lot of prep. to release them back. I have to convert them back to natural seawater takes about 50 gal seawater kept in the dark run through micronfilters and carbon heavy aeration before I use it. The fish get released at a popular snorkeling site since these fish are use to people. I think its good for the fish. Especialy because there is no fishing right there .
 
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