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Aquael Mini Pat Powerhead

BarryH

Member
Joined
25 Feb 2017
Messages
608
Location
Derbyshire
I have 5 or 6 of the Aquael Mini Pat filters running through the double sponge filter conversion in my Dennerle 35 litre tanks and they are really good. I also have an older Juwel Rekord 60 litre tank that still uses its own Juwel square box filter which I'd like to get rid of and install one of the Mini Pats in its place. My only problem is the tank capacities shown on the Aquael website for the Mini Pat reads 10-400 litres which doesn't sound right. I'm just wondering if anyone uses one of these in a tank larger than 35 litres?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
I don't use the filter, but it is basically a powered sponge filter. With the conversion, I would not worry about running it on a 60 litre tank. (even without would likely be fine stocking dependant)

Sponge filters are great for biofiltration, just not mechanical
 
I was interested in the filter in the past but never got round to trying it out.
You might have misread. The packaging says tanks up to 120 litres, and max flow of 400 litres/hour filtration.
 
I was interested in the filter in the past but never got round to trying it out.
You might have misread. The packaging says tanks up to 120 litres, and max flow of 400 litres/hour filtration.
Thanks for that, it makes more sense. I read it on the Aquael website. Even with the "tanks up to 120 litres" wording I think I should be OK with just one in the 60 litre tank.
 
Hi all,
My only problem is the tank capacities shown on the Aquael website for the Mini Pat reads 10-400 litres which doesn't sound right.
Could you just install a <"larger sponge block?"> I use the pre-filter blocks <"Koi places sell">.

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cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel. Most of the larger blocks I've seen are a bit on the coarse side for the tiny shrimp babies. That was why I went for the round sponges. I've also seen some recently that have a sort of cup at the base for holding ceramic media.
 
Hi all,
Most of the larger blocks I've seen are a bit on the coarse side for the tiny shrimp babies.
If you have a really big sponge block the speed of flow through the sides is pretty limited, just because you have a very large surface area for the water to flow through. This means that it doesn't tend to pin small animals against the foam surface, although shrimplets may still enter the foam matrix and potentially get stuck.

It also means you can leaves it a long time between cleanings. Over time I've decided that a larger volume of coarser sponge works better for me than a smaller volume of finer sponge, mainly because it requires a lot less intervention, and I'm pretty slapdash ("have a risk management approach to") in my approach to tank management.

cheers Darrel
 
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