Biocube sponge alternative

[AnthonyR]

Anyone have any ideas or comments. I was wondering if anyone has put chemipure in place of their filter sponge in chamber three. I currently have chemipure under my overflow tray and above my bioballs in chamber 2. My tank is still young and I heard bad things about the sponge. I'm just looking ahead for ways to improve my cube.

 

[Crabs]

Lose the sponge. With that much chemipure u don't need to put anything in its place. Besides, keeping that bag in place in chamber 3 is a challenge. Ive tried. Instead, I took out the false bottom of chamber 2 and stuck a bag of Chemipure Elite at the bottom of that chamber

 

[Convict2161]

This is my setup and seems to be working for me.

Chamber 1. Heater and chemi pure elite

Chamber 2. InTank media rack with and in this order. Filter floss, purigen and phosguard and a Tunze 9002 skimmer with inTanks upgraded cup.

Chamber 3. Removed sponge, nothing in its place and my MJ1200 pump.

Seems to be working, water is crystal clear and no debris coming out of the outtake. I do regularly cleaning of pump, skimmer, media rack heater etc... I too took all the false bottoms out of the tank.

 

[ChizerBunoi]

Here is my setup:
Chamber 1, poly floss and sponge (both changed once a week, I rotate another sponge in while this one dries out over the week).

Chamber 2, Aquaticlife 115 Protein skimmer and sponge (to stop any bubbles from getting into the display tank). The sponge is changed once a month.

Chamber 3, heater, tunze ato and return pump.

I say keep the sponge and use poly floss as it is great for catching detritus and keeping the tank nice and clear.

 

[Convict2161]

IMO the sponge is not needed. I'd say keep the sponge only if you were running chaeto somewhere in your tank. Many run it in chamber 2. If your not using chaeto then honestly toss it! It's really doing nothing but collecting nitrates. I've haven't had a sponge and my water is crystal clear. I just have poly floss in the inTank media top level of the rack and that's it. Purigen, phosguard and chemi pure elite are the only other things I use.

I don't see any benefit of that sponge between 2 and 3 other another thing you need to rinse and make sure is clean. If your REALLY worried about it I suggest running a piece of poly floss in its place and just tossing it every water change. But that can get annoying also and probably expensive in the long run. You don't need it so toss it. Plus half the time it's never seated right anyway or floats to the top. Again this is just my opinion andy experience with using the sponge an without. My tank has only been up since November so I'm no expert.

I can only offer my dealings with and without it. I'm glad it's in the trash. If things worry me at a point I can always cut a piece of poly floss and make it a little bigger so it seats correctly

This is of course JMO

 

[Convict2161]

Here is my setup:
Chamber 1, poly floss and sponge (both changed once a week, I rotate another sponge in while this one dries out over the week).

Chamber 2, Aquaticlife 115 Protein skimmer and sponge (to stop any bubbles from getting into the display tank). The sponge is changed once a month.
.

So you run floss and 2 sponges? Why if you don't have the sponge are you getting bubbles in your display tank? I use the Tunze 9002 so I wouldn't know about your skimmer so I'm just curious. Seems like a lot of sponges and then your floss. Sounds like a breeding ground for NitrAtes to me.

Also your running floss and the sponge in chamber 1? How is it set up?

And finally are you not using the sponge between chamber 2&3?

Sorry for so many questions just curious.

 

[ChizerBunoi]

I don't have a media rack so the sponge holds the floss in place.

The skimmers outlet is not controllable and the bubbles get sucked into the return pump by default. I only have the sponge there just to prevent any bubbles. Similar to a bubble trap in a sump.

I never have any issues with nitrates due to the sponges. But then again, I run a bare-bottom tank. Before that when I had SSB, I had huge nitrate issues.