Custom sponge filter for shrimp tank?

[dskidmore]

I'm redoing my 75 gallon tank as a shrimp tank. The tank will have Cherry Reds in the near future, and some sort of filter feeder further down the line. I could just buy a massive sponge filter and hide it in a back corner, but I want to do something novel.

Past shrimp I've had loved to hang out on the sponges and pick off bits of food, so I'm actually planning to make the sponges a major feature of the tank. The sponges would be half burried in the sand like an undergravel filter of sorts, and cleaned as an undergravel filter instead of removed from the tank for cleaning. (Once I bury the piping, I'm not going to want to dig it up for weekly cleaning.)

I'm thinking of using an array of smaller sponges, like the Bio-Filter 3 Sponge with flexible tubing burried under the sand, and a decent powerhead in the back corner, perhaps running to a spray bar for areation.

A) Anyone know the flow requriements of shrimp vs fish?
B) How much are those sponges going to drag down my flow rate?
C) Would you do a spray bar or a venturi?

 

[majolo]

The filter shrimp you are planning on down the line will definitely appreciate areas of good flow where they can hang out and feed. I can't help much on the other questions. I don't know in particular if filter shrimp would be annoyed by the bubbles from a venturi (if I'm thinking of the right thing).

 

[dskidmore]

I took a pointer from Maxwell and picked up some car sponges.

"Imported Grecian Wonder Sponge" to be more exact. (Buy one get one free, more natural shade of yellow.) "Looks and performs like a real sea sponge... improving on Mother Nature's design." If this thing isn't a real sponge, they need a new quality control guy. Of the 6 sponges I bought, there are two major color variations. I'm going to actually use the 4 that look alike.

I rinsed them out a bit, and they generate a lot of foam. I think it's the pore size of the sponge and stuff in my tap water, not a contaminant, as it doesn't go down over time at all. Just in case, I'll run this filter for a couple weeks and watch the effect on the snails before I order shrimp.

 

[dskidmore]

Pulled the Quietone 4000 out of the attic. Almost never used. The project I bought it for didn't pan out. Forgot about how annoying the inserts were to change. Last time I bent some of the plastic trying. This time a long hot water soak and patient pushing did the trick.

Someone on the petshrimp forum thought that 10x turnover was about right for filter feeders. Not sure how much of that I want to pull through the sponges.

Sponges are about 7x4"x4 of them, 112 square inches that will be exposed (sand is fine enough minimal current will move through the bottom side) making about 10 GPH per square inch? Sounds reasonable... Might have time to get pipe on Sunday.