Sponge filter - fry tank

[IceBlue]

i have an 80 gal partitioned of to 4 twenty gallons. I'm thinking of partitioning of to 8 ten gallons. This would make 8 2'X6" fry tanks. Does this make sense or should I leave as is?

Also I'm planning on using air sponges. If I go with 8 ten gallon partitions or stay with the 4 20 gal, what size sponges should I get and where can I find them. Prefer a forum sponsor or member supplier.

[effox]

You'd want to make sure you've got "slotted" tops if you want water exchange for only 4 sponges, I'd probably put some sort of powerhead or two in the middle pointing opposite directions in there, but then again I've never done anything like this before.

Hopefully someone experienced can chime up, since I really don't know. It just seems like a waste of space and money to have to have 8 individual sponge filters.

Cheers,
Chris

[Slopster]

How many fry in each Partion???, one thing i've learned is to have over filtration, regardless if they are fry, they still make a mess in your tank, now times that by said partitions, IMHO I'd put in the biggest filter in each Partition..

I had a 40g that i partitioned off into 4 so 4 10g areas, now remember it's not a full 10 g partition depending on how much substrate you have in your tank and what else is in there, somif your tank is a 80 g and you have 2" of substrate and say you have rocks and wood then maybe you have about 68-70g tank,m with that being said back to my 40g that i divided into 4's I had a empourer 400 in the middle with a sponge filter in either end and two power heads in opposite directions , in each section i had africans that were either holding or fry ripping around, and i still had a tough time keeping the water clean,


So always always over filtration is the best way to go....

[IceBlue]

Probably 40-80 fry per tank, grow out will happen in different tank. I'm totally on with the overfiltration, since i have little experience with sponge filters I'm open to suggestions. No adults will be in this set up - I strip the fry from females from the main tanks. No substrate, still unsure about power head in fry tank - is it not to turbulent? I have one 20 gal partition running with 5 or 6 inch dia sponge filter approx 50 fry up to 3/4 inch and water parameters are stable. 0, 0, and nitrates around 20-40ppm. Sounds like 10 gal would work. Partitions are solid glass.

My thought is to do 10gal partitions, proceed with large sponge filters, monitor the water parametrs, if I need further filtration I'll add small capacity HOB's. Sound right?

[charles]

sponge filters will work great for fry tank. You don't need a powerhead in there.

I assume you are separate each section with a glass so there is no water going through each section? Then you will need individual sponge per section. If you are using other separators that will allow water moving through, then you can use 2-3 bigger sponges.

For heater, if water going through, you need 1 heater. If not, you might need 2 heaters on either side of the tank so it will warm up the separate section the heater is heating up. I know it works better with 6 section with 1 heater on the back left corner section, and 1 heater on the front right corner section. With 8, you might need a third one. To keep it simple, you only want the heater to transfer heat through 1 plain of glass..

[IceBlue]

sponge filters will work great for fry tank. You don't need a powerhead in there.

I assume you are separate each section with a glass so there is no water going through each section? Then you will need individual sponge per section. If you are using other separators that will allow water moving through, then you can use 2-3 bigger sponges.

For heater, if water going through, you need 1 heater. If not, you might need 2 heaters on either side of the tank so it will warm up the separate section the heater is heating up. I know it works better with 6 section with 1 heater on the back left corner section, and 1 heater on the front right corner section. With 8, you might need a third one. To keep it simple, you only want the heater to transfer heat through 1 plain of glass..

That's right it's all glass, so right now I have 4-20 gal, if I stay with that I'll use the large sponges, but hoping to split to 8 - 10 gals. Tried using tank dividers and didn't like the result so probably have to go glass. Having no luck finding sponges on Island. May have to make a trip to mainland for supplies.

[Yan7gin]

If you want some hydro sponge filter i can procure some number 5 for 20$ each. Around victoria


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.437503,-123.468678

[charles]

That's right it's all glass, so right now I have 4-20 gal, if I stay with that I'll use the large sponges, but hoping to split to 8 - 10 gals. Tried using tank dividers and didn't like the result so probably have to go glass. Having no luck finding sponges on Island. May have to make a trip to mainland for supplies.

I think what you have is fine already. 8-10g section which will require you to do water changes much more often as small volume of water can go bad very very fast.

[IceBlue]

Thanks for the offer Yan7Gin. I actually get over to Van more often than I get down to Vic. Probably going to go to Canadian aquatics in january.

After all that - I think i like Charles's advice on leaving the tank the way it is. Thanks for the input / help folks.