Homemade sponge filters

[jessibell]

I took a swing at making a sponge filter yesterday. I cut a small pop bottle off at the neck, cut some slits near the base, put in some larger rocks, then some foam, then topped it off with gravel (all from an established tank) and stuck an air line with a small stone down the middle of it. I'm letting it run with the HOB until the tank is finished cycling. Will this setup be enough to keep the water parameters good once it is established? It is a five gallon tank that will hold guppy fry.

I want to steer away from the HOB as it causes a lot of turbulence in that little tank.

 

[Sicklid]

Hey jes...

It sounds good, especially since you used cultured gravel from an established tank. If you mean that you used a one-liter bottle, then I think that should suffice for a single Betta in that volume of water... Actually it sounds a lot like the old-school corner "bubble-up" filters I had on my tank as a kid!

I use sponge filters in all my tanks, including my 75 gallon, but that one I splurged on the Hydrosponge stackable pond unit. Even on that one I still power it with an airstone. I do this because I frequently lose power here in Florida, and I have the airstone hooked up to a "T" connector and 2 check valves going to a regular air pump as well as a battery-powered back-up that kicks on only when the electric fails, so I can maintain some form of filtration when the canisters are down...

I'd like to see a pic of your sponge filter!

 

[jessibell]

lol well I was at the pet store today and found a much nicer looking sponge filter setup for 7 bucks... so the homemade one no longer exists! I still used established gravel in the bottom and a chunk of foam that has been sitting up against my biofilter for the past three weeks. Plus I added some new stuff.

Yes the power going out is one of my worst nightmares. It gets cold as heck here (65 is room temperature, and when the power goes out in the winter, the toilets freeze. And the fish tanks We have a generator though, and worst comes to worst I can warm water on the wood stove in the shop and warm the tanks that way.

 

[corrado33]

Geeze good luck with that. I'd be afraid of the power going out too. I would be taking so many precautions to make sure everything would be fine. How often does the power go out?

 

[jessibell]

it goes out every so often. Usually in the winter when the roads are bad, some idiot speeding on the Kitimat highway rolls his car and takes out a couple of power poles and everyone within a hundred miles is out of power for a few hours! And the guys from the phone company like to shut down power randomly to work on the wires and unless you're home to get the message, you never really know when they're going to do it.

Our water main broke a couple of times last year and we finally had to dig the whole thin g up and replace it. We had no running water for four days and on the third day the power went out for 24 hours as well LOL We had to rent a room at a hotel across town just to have a hot shower I had already been peeing in the bush behind the woodshed for two days at this point because the toilets didn't work LMAO I love Canada.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

WOW, geez keeping fish has enough problems and responsibilities let alone dealing with mother nature, but i have to admit much to the dismay of my wife i would live in the cold everyday of my life...haha havent been to Candada but plan to and plan to have a good time as well. Good luck with the filter BTW!!!

 

[Phazeshyft]

there is a device called a thermoelectric cooler, or Peltier device. It uses the passing of electrons to transfer heat from one side of a ceramic plate to the other. awesome thing is it works the other way too. one side gets cold the other gets hot. AND...best part if you heat one side and cool the other it produces electricity, very low amount, but enough to power LEDs and a few other things. I was thinking of building a unit that can heat the water in the tank by using the voltage created by ANOTHER device or two.
So basically I get enough to heat a small tank of water then double that amount to produce the power by placing it near a good heat source and dissipating the heat to to outdoors in the winter.
i bit convoluted but i think itll work.