How To Wash The Sponge Filter And Its Life Span Options

[mountain]

Hi guys, my first question for Year 2004.

how do u know when to replace it? mine is like .. cannot see the pores anymore unless i wash it under a water jet. and it seems to get clod up pretty easily nowadays, give it 2 days and its all covered with webs of decomposed poos..

hmm .. is it how its suppose to be???

[HappyBuddha]

I have two hospital tubs of indentical setup. Each tub hold one fish.

For the longest time I cannot figure out why only one of the sponge is like you describe; gets clogged easily and is... damn yuky when you squeeze it. It doesn't expand to its original shape after i squeeze it. The other one... however, is still as good as new!

Now... I gave up cleaning it. After sunning it for a few days, that sponge would get clog up again pretty quick. Meanwhile the other sponge is still going strong.

Hence... it could be that sponge is damaged... perhaps by salt that I once applied in that particular tub?

Thanks for bringing this up as I've been wanting to share this strange thing with you.

[mountain]

thx for sharing the same experience. now i know i am not alone in the universe. but yurs is inside hospital tub with medication etc etc etc.
hmm .. now who knows the solution..

well, seems like the other sponges in my 4ft tank doesn't have this problem. so most prob up the lorry liao. guess i will replace it soon to be on the safe side.

[Allan]

how do u know when to replace it? mine is like .. cannot see the pores anymore unless i wash it under a water jet. and it seems to get clod up pretty easily nowadays, give it 2 days and its all covered with webs of decomposed poos..

I have the same experience where my sponge would clogged up a few days after I have rinsed it clean.

It was frustrating and I wanted to replace the sponge. Then a LFS owner taught me this method. Remove and rinse the sponge under tap water. Squeeze the sponge and rinse again until the sponge can bounce back into shape quickly. Then soak it in a basin of clean water overnight. After that, sun it for a few days. Obviously the procedure is to kill all the bacterial.

It will become as good as new after that. Give it a try before you buy a replacement sponge.

Cheers.

[mountain]

boss.. tat would take up till ~4 Days whooo

but then .. tats roughly wat i am doing now, abit i never soak in clean water.
alternating between a 2 or 3 sponges.