Monthly Meeting & Demo by zenins – April 24th

[zenins]

Pretty useful talk. After having watched his presentation, yesterday I went out and bought the medium Filstar filter at Big Als. It's nicely designed. I'm wondering if feeding the CO2 into the intake might degrade the plastics or the impeller.

Years ago, when I had a proper planted tank, I generated my own CO2 (yeast, sugar, baking soda) The output was through a very fine air-stone ( I think it was ceramic ) that sat at the spraybar outlet. This way, the CO2 was dispersed into the water column without having to worry about affecting the plastic parts of the canister or the filter media

Hope this helps

[zenins]

Hey Zenin,

Thanks again for the talk - it really was very good!  Couple of questions:

-What was the name of the German DIY slab of filter foam approach?
-Is there a particular name or type (beyond open cell) of the high quality foam to look for at conventions?

Thanks,

Stephanie

The slab foam filter technique is called the Mattenfilter, or sometimes the Hamburg Filter.

The best slab filter foam is Poret
http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/swisstropicals-poret-foam/

It is pretty expensive, but I think it is worth it, because it lasts for ever,
it works very well and it is purposely manufactured for the aquarium hobby.
There are some lesser expensive alternatives, like pond filter foam.
It will work for a while, but it depends on being cleaned at least twice a year,
and usually has to be replaced after about 3 years, because it starts to break down.
I have purchased some cheap filter foam from China, very unpredictable quality,
some last a few years, others start to break down in less than a year

In Canada, you can get the Swisstropicals poret foam from AngelFins in Guelph.

Here is a matten filter kit with the jet lift tube:
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28309_12&products_id=948&zenid=fb28e1d888837253f220ec5d471a1d9a

Here is a larger piece of foam only:
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28309_12&products_id=1464

Here is the whole page on the website:
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28309_12&pg=store

Not sure about shipping costs, but that is probably on the website some where

An alternative is to go to an aquarium convention where the foam is being sold or ask someone else going to pick some up for you

There are lots of vendors on Amazon.ca selling various foam products, shipping might be free over a certain dollar amount of order ?
https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D6292474011&field-keywords=foam+filters&rh=n%3A6292474011%2Ck%3Afoam+filters

Your local fish store can usually get some foam filter mats, ask them to order some if you do not see any on display, they might also have some "in the back" because it may take up a lot of space that they might want to have to display lots of other accessories and dry goods

Hope this helps

[zenins]

Question -
I've got a pre-owned homemade sump pump filter. The pipe from the tank hangs over the container for the filter. I was wondering if the filter floss I bought for it can be hanging from the pipe, to catch the water before it falls into the filter system itself or if the floss should be in the water below so bacteria can better grow on it? I hope this makes sense.

If the floss is always exposed to the air, it grows a different bacterial culture than floss that is submerged all the time.
The good news is that both are beneficial bacteria

Mechanical filtration will happen in both cases, so beware that particles trapped in the floss will have to be rinsed/squeezed out once in a while to maintain a good flow of water.

I am not a sump expert, so try it and let us know how it goes

[Nienna]

Thanks Zenin, that was exactly what I was looking for