You can also grow plants in a sump. Plants have a bunch of benefits, but some fish like to eat/kill them. Plus it's a hidden place to put trimmings while they root.

Nick's not wrong, but this video is very much oriented towards breeders. The sponge filter is indeed the best for breeders. Display tanks and aquascapes, however, have different needs that are often far better addressed by HOB's, sumps, canisters, anoxic and undergravels.

There were so many beautiful fish shots. I like external hang on back filters because if they are removing something harmful, that harmful stuff is outside the tank. I find cleaning them to be easiest since you don't disturb the tank. A sponge filter over the intake is awesome. I always had fry or babies winding up in the filter. This wasn't always bad. I consider fish tank sounds to be part of the appeal. I love having a tank in the bedroom. The background noise is very soothing.

Externally experienced hobbiest here and I still love these beginner style videos❤️

I use a combination of a sponge filter + top filter + plants. It's my best one yet. My aquarium is looking crystal clear even after a month of no water change (although I wouldn't recommend it). And by the way I have 4 goldfishes and you know how much waste they produce. The sponge filter works like a charm like explained in the video, the top filter makes sure there are no debris and large poops that the sponge can't handle, and lastly the plants eat all the algae that turns the water green.

I’ve used them all over the years. Sponge, box, and HOBs are what I’ve settled on. I often use a combination of two or even three types depending on what the tank needs, and what I want to accomplish. Canisters are too much trouble and risky. Great presentation Nick. Music is perfect

I use internal filers but more so for the side spray add ons to give the raining effect to oxygenated the water more and it sounds really soothing.

I love canister filters, I use one in my L46 tank. I didn’t want a noisy and/or visually unappealing filter on the inside of my tank since it’s my display tank, and I have a big school of cardinal tetras and a few hundred shrimp in there as well as the 7 L46 so I also needed a big filtration and bio load capacity. I modified the intake so that shrimp don’t get sucked in and it’s been serving me well. I find it pretty easy to maintain, to not get water everywhere you don’t need to unplug anything just take the whole think and keep the outlet and the intake in one hand at the top and the canister at the bottom so that it doesn’t spill out, then I put all the media in a bucket with tank water. I also use sponge filters as you said they are great for nano tanks and fry tanks, I use them for my Epiplatys Annulatus breeding tank and I’m setting up a breeding tank for my mahachaiensis betta since they can live together as they are a wild type unlike the usual splendens, for this tank I use a sponge filter but not the ones like in your video, you know the ones that have 2 sponges and the outlet tube going up in the middle. Sorry for this long kind of useless text lol and sorry for any bad English, it’s not my first language. Always like watching your videos

Thanks so much for this video! So helpful. After watching I decided to get a sponge filter.

Thanks man! That was a good overview.. I'm looking into sumps!

Filters introduced in this video: 1. Air lift internal sponge filter 2. Big air lift internal sponge filter 3. Put sponge in it and its an external sponge filter 4. Internal water pump sponge filter 5. Fill it with sponges and you get oversized external sponge filters 6. Fill it with sponges and you get overly high tech sponge filters Sponge is king of aquarium filter media and you have no right to say all that! Jk jk great video btw!

I use a combination of an ugf filter plate as my biological and an overhead trough filter for mechanical all run off the same pump. It keeps the substrate oxygenated so it doesn't go anaerobic so it solved that problem I was having. I really like it and it's basically invisible with very low maintenance, just a gravel vac once a month with weekly water changes the same as usual. I've noticed a big improvement in my fishes health and they're breeding again. 😊

Great information here !! I've been researching very very hard for the past 3 weeks every single night for hours I'm so glad I ran across your instructional video thank you so very much !! 🐠

Another pro for sponge filters is that they're great for floating plants

I love sponge filters perfect for every tank and all fish I have a sponge filter in a ten gallon 🐌

wow not to long ago you hit 100k and now your at 113k keep up the amazing content, God bless you and your family have a wonderfull day.

As a new fishkeeper(of Orandas, Black Moors, and fantail goldfish) I am very appreciative of your explanation of filters. I have an indoor pond in a 100 gl stock tank from the agriculture store. I do have an internal filter, but I added an XL sponge filter recently and love it. I’m wondering if I removed the submerged filter and replaced it with another xl sponge filter, if that would be enough filtration. Currently my 13 fish are very young and small, but I know I’ll most likely have to pull a few out and put in a different tank as they get larger.

Important info in this Vid. Super Nice 👌👌👌

Nice wee video there bro and I totally agree with you. Cheers

In my country top sump filter is quite popular and i would say very reasonable price. 3 tanks i have uses them and the other tanks that i use for breeding specifically use sponge filters. What good about them is i portion my biomedia in bags in the sump. Whenever i need to setup a new tank, i just take 1 bags and boom instant cycle. I also love how easy it is to change the sponge every month.

I use hang inside filters alongside small sponge filters. I use the hang inside filters because the fish love the gentle waterfall effect. My lamb chop rasboras, especially enjoy shooting across and letting the waterfall pull them down an inch. They take turns. It's awesome. The hang inside filter is also very good at removing larger debris quickly. I make my own replacement filters for the Tetra brand hang inside filters. Easy. Rinsable, since I don't put charcoal inside the filter. Cheap.

All filters have their place. But really well done video brother. I love both world I run air loop around this fishroom(only 8 tanks) and canister filters as trash cans. As my fishroom is in my misses salon kind of has to be display worthy tanks. So my misses pays for the power lol out the back got 3 xl sponge filters and an air lift runs 6x2x2 the same as the one in my fishroom on an fx6 and 2xl sponge. Mortal of the story I love both lol have to coin spend it if you don't dont worry not the end of the world. sponge and air lifts do just as good as a job just suck to clean and the day after the tank looks like a boom went off. Easy fix. Lol much love

Thank goodness you are back. Did everything stay safe in flood?

I run a HOB and a sponge filter on my tanks. If one quits I have the other one for backup that's already cycled. I also keep battery and rechargeable backup pumps on hand.

My favorite type of filter is the air pump, sponge filter

Thanks. You did a great review of all of the types of filtration. I am still struggling. I am starting a 55G. I am starting with an extra 40G HOB with a large for a 55G Sponge Filter until I get the substrate layers in, get it scaped, and cycled/stable. Then, I'll make a decision.

great vid

My next tank I get I am going try something I have never done before and hook up the intake of a canister filter to an under gravel filter to make a super filter system.

great video

This is definitely the best aquarium filter video on KZfaq. Nice job and thanks!

Thanks great video love B roll I would watch just b roll haha

Under gravel filter is my favorite because I manly keep high end Caridina shrimp and UGF is good for buffering the water and lowering PH. With UGF you can use much less soil and save some money and also you can have a bare bottom tank with ugf box to avoid buildups

In Indonesia, there is top side filter. Basicly like sump filter, but put along top side of tank. You can see diy type of top side filter; using rain cannal from edge roof as a "box" medias filter.

How do you work out what size air pump and sponge filter for an aquarium?

Hi, I know that this is a bit off topic, but I would love to know what you feed your l201 snowball plecos.

Thank you for making this video, I found it extremely helpful. We have had our fish for 6 months. We have a humble 5 gallon tank with a Vail Tail Betta and this morning his tail fin was sucked into the intake tube of the hanging filter and was badly damaged. We are extremely saddened and are searching for the safest option for our normally very happy betta Sir Sam :( A sponge filter sounds like the best option for us.

I love all the fish you have on your website but you should consider putting filters and stuff on there to because I would totally buy

Hello, I have a 15 gallon planted tank and have a hang on back filter so would like to know, whats should be the minimum gap to the water surface of the tank to that of filter outlet. Please advise.

I have small air stones in all my sponge filter to help reduce the loud noise that it makes when running.

The music makes me wanna just chill and miss all the info :')

i use internal an spongue. almost same, but if u need some water flow use internals, for breed and srimps spongue.

Big fan of internal filters quite than sponge and always restart if you lose power(my area loses power often)

Nice 👍👍👍

Nick are you doing alright? I have been worried since I heard about the floods near you. Praying for you.

Is there a way to do a sump with tubes instead of drilling a hole in the tank ?

Which option is the quietest for a beginner tropical tank for a bedroom please?

Hey can you use these for salt water animals

Hi Fave here from uk I’ve got a 130l tank Would one Sponge Filter be enough

Is there any specific reason as to why you don't like undergravel filters?

I wanna start breeding bettt fish, what size tank should I buy for the spawn to live in

I have a 20gal tal… kinda want 2 sponge filters on each corner for cemetery… would it be to much though? I’ve got a bunch of plants and wood… zebra danio school and neon tetra school.. 2 balloon belly and a ruby clown ram.. maybe too much flow for ram?.. idk.. please lmk

solid

What are those snails that are shot in the video they are beautiful and seem to be fresh water as well

Sponge filters are very easy to quieten by putting a small cylindrical air stone down the internal shaft

Awesome

at time 3:55 what fish is that

I have hang on back filter and sponge filter in 10 gallon tank to clean

Are internal filters for you same as undergravel filters?

What filter do I need for a red claw crab

The music was tripping me out. It was cool

Can I use it for a 50 gallon tank

Hey man thanks for answering my last question. I had two more questions. 1. What is the smallest tank you use for fish in liter. And what is the smallest you would recommend to even buy. Is 10 gallon really useful? 2. What size aquariums do you recommend for a breeding setup for angel fish and rams? 3 different tanks one for the breeding pair, one for grow out and one for the fry. I’m just a bit confused on what size tanks I should be getting.

What type of rainbows are at 0:40?

are you going to make a video about the rainbow fish breeding?

I have two tanks, both with internal filters because it was cheaper than sponge filters and an air pump

7:57 please someone help me what is this FISH? SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

Great video nick! Thankyou for a very informative video. I use sponge filters, internal filters, canisters and hang on the backs and all work absolutely fine. But money does come into them . So your 100% correct 😊

I like sponge and box filter. Easy to use. I e air pump drive all

At 3:59 what kind of fish is that?

You didn’t lose power or flood?

All of my tanks have HOB & sponge I’m trying to decide if I should get rid of all of the HOBs Endler tank Koi guppy tank Corydora tank Swordtail tank Cherry barb tank

I have a internal and sponge for my cichlid tank. Internal is better for bigger debri, sponge is for smalled debri

Hope you and the fish are oke? I see the rain storm on tv today

Yes, for my aquascape tanks I use canister filters. Some of them make maintenance messy but there's types like Eheim Professional 4 that enable you to disconnect hoses without spilling water. That being said, I use sponge filters in different sizes in all my breeding tanks.

Bakki style above aquarium trickle filter.

I have an internal filter, a hang on back filter, and a sponge filter in my bristlenose breeding tank and the water is still a bit cloudy. I do about 2, 20% water changes a week

Hey Nick. 1. I completely agree with manufacturers making you believe you MUST have huge filters, etc. 2. My favourite filter (as a shrimp breeder + some nano fish) is a sponge filter that has a directional nozzle on the uplift tube, therefore providing the one extra benefit of a matten filter of being able to move the water from the back to front. 3. Lastly, my 6-foot display has a canister filter, which helps double as a wave maker. Since it is recommended to use an air stone for surface agitation (oxygen comes from the plants) I use 2 x sponge filters with directional uplift tube. They hide well behind the scape and also are much quieter than the stones themselves.

which is best fish store in brisbane?

great video!!!

I use my matten filter as a tank divider.

Hi Nick! Hope u doing ok!! Please let us all know if u need any help, maybe do a go fund me, if u need to do any repairs etc with ur fish room related to the floods and things! ❤️🥰🐶

Link me a sponge filter for 10 gallon tank please. Im your new subscriber here 🙌🏽

TLDR; all methods of filtration are viable. All have their pros and their cons. I like your stuff but you got a lot of stuff wrong in terms of efficacy. You mentioned all the pros and cons about sponges but really neglected the pros of other methods. HoB are much much better in terms of mechanical filtration. You can also drastically increase your surface area by filling them with batting and sponges, as well as using a prefilter. They're also much easier to clean without releasing potentially harmful particulate matter back into the water column. Also, most companies selling HoB, Canisters, sumps, etc also sell air pumps and sponges. There's no conspiracy to get hobbyists to spend more. They do however make many many unnecessary accessories to make more money. There's nothing inherently wrong or unethical with that.

Bro add a air stone inside the sponge filter it increase the filteration and and the sound will dicrease

My AquaClear 70 works very well for my 4ft tank. I added more filter media including Seachem Matrix.

Is it okay to put aquarium in the bedroom?

How to set up a canister filter without water going everywhere when you are about to clean them... valves. Use valves. One on intake, on on exhaust. Have your filter sit in a tub with both valves also over same tub. Unplug the filter from the electric grid, immediately close both valves. Unplug the filter hoses/pipes. Small amount of water will leak but hey it is all contained in that tub. No syphoning effect, no water everywhere.

Hi 🖐

I like spongefilters and hang on back filters BUT the big drawback on the spongefilter is the airpump, and no one is tuching this subjekct, they just talk about how cheap the sponge is...!! Airpumps are very loud and often expensive to buy so if you don´t have a fishroom you can not save any money by using them! Hang on back you have nice access to the filtermedia and you can actually inspect it to see if it needs cleaning and just lift the media out of the filter! So if you just have a few tanks i suggest you use hang on back filters!

The more sponge the more bio load your tank can handle. Sponge filters are good for bio load but that's about it. Internal filters are sponge filters on steroids which equals better. I have many of them and none of them have ever given me a problem. All in all the canister is the best obviously some are better than others. They do it all bio, mechanical, chemical. In my opinion the fx6 is the best canister out there because of the sponge volume. The outer sponges aren't mechanical they're bio filtration. 30 ppi sponge is the best bio media out there and that's what is in the fx6. Plus all that space for more sponge in the middle. Hob the aquaclear is the best. Again sponge size and room for more. Internal filter and I swear by these all my big tanks have them because they keep canisters cleaner longer is the xpertmatic filter. Amazing filters. Last but not least the last thing you want to do with any filter is clean it once a month. It takes a month for a filter to recover from a cleaning so if you clean once a month it never recovers. Let a filter go until water is noticeably restricted. Don't fully rinse out the sponge. Leave some of the bio film in there.

💙💙

I like anoxic filters.

👍🏻👍🏻

The title of this video should be "go buy a sponge filter". One thing I didn't see that a sponge filter provides is flow. Sure you can get the sponge filters that have a pump but then they use an outlet and fall into your internal filter category. But while this video is great with super helpful info. If you need flow, then the mighty air powered sponge filter that's praised in this video, won't work better than say an internal filter for that reason.

I think you missed a few points, especially about the hang on filters. About hang on: they are definetly the most noisy free alternative, imo they are way more convinient to clean than a sponge filter, cuz youre not going to mess your scape, everything is out of the tank. About the fry, just stick a sponge in the intake tube. Right now, i have the same sponge filter, canister and two hang ons in my tanks for about 3 years, and by far the best to me are the hang ons, never had issue with then, almost 3 years and still full power and full silent, easy to maintain and clean... the sponge is already full of holes (course its cheap and i will just replace it, but the sponge i use into the hang on is way cheaper). Also the air pump got noisier and noisier every day since three months of use, and loosing power, its quite a common thing to happen with a air pump... About the canister, im using cuz i have it, but i dont really like it either. And about internal filters, i agree with you, however, if you stick a power head of a internal filter into a sponge filter you will have a silent and more eficient sponge filter (cuz now it will catch more particles and move more water than with a air pump). That what i did and got rid of that noisy thing, only con is that since its running so much more water, i have to clean it every 5 days instead of 15 like before, but it also means that its capturing way more dirt and waste...

Are you worried about chemical filtration? A sponge filter can’t help with that just the mechanical and biological. Newbie here just wanted to get your opinion. I’ve been running a HOB just to cover all media types.

Hope the Room is ok In the flood

Watch Andy woods on KZfaq he said sponge filters are underrated..

I have a pretty different opinion. I don’t think I’d ever use a sponge filter for anything bigger than a 20 gallon. Period. Under 20, sponges all the way. For my 55 gallon, I wouldn’t ever use anything with less filtration capacity than the seachem tidal 75 I have on it now, and that’s with the 2 sponge inserts and seachem matrix in it. I do like this channel, but I’ll be transparent that I watch KGTropicals more and they were the ones I bought the tidal from. And 75 and up, canisters, hands down.

I would 100% put a sump on every tank but they are too loud