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Problems with air driven filters

BarryH

Member
Joined
25 Feb 2017
Messages
608
Location
Derbyshire
In a couple of my shrimp only tanks I use the round air driven filters attached through a Mini Pat pump. Recently the filters like the ones in the photo, have started collapsing even though they were only cleaned a week or so ago. By collapsing in, I mean the shape of the filters looks like an hour glass, one started doing and now the others have started too.

The filters are a little over a year old and when I first installed them they seemed to run for months without any problems. Now it seems I need to clean them every 10 days or so. Anyone any help or ideas please?
s-l1600.jpg
 
Sounds like poor quality foam, the pores are collapsing as it gets older.
I would buy a large filter mat of your desired density and thickness and DIY some new sponges.
Or you could get something like this to replace them if you dont fancy doing it yourself
Thanks for the help, really appreciated.
 
As a bit of a follow on from the first question, I managed to get a number of new round sponges to replace the ones that are collapsing in. If I replace the sponges in the tanks one at a time, how long should I leave before I replace the second one?

I'm hoping the bacteria from the old sponge still on the filter will colonise the new sponge and then I can swap the old one too. I hope that all makes sense.
 
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That's a tricky question to answer because it depends on lots of variables like stocking, planting density, amount of feeding etc. You will generally hear anything from one week to 4-6 weeks mentioned and being the cautious guy I am, I'd probably leave it a month to make sure. Bacteria will colonise it pretty quickly but unless the other sponge is completely knackered there shouldn't be a hurry.
In a normal shrimp tank you probably won't have much strain on the filter anyway but it's always nice to have sponges of different ages so that it's easier to swap them out with a gap later on.
 
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