Are Cotton Filter Soup Bags safe in the Aquarium?

[joachimsim]

Is the abv safe for use for putting filtration materials for fresh water /salt water aquaria?

[arcanehacker]

I dun see why since they are all cloth and soup bags are made from good quality ones because human's life are at stake..

In fact I find them better coz you can use for finer medias.

[nicky30092002]

i uses that ... cheap & good ..

[damsel-in-distress]

I need some fine-media filter bags. Where can I get these cloth and soup bags from?

[Eric]

I need some fine-media filter bags. Where can I get these cloth and soup bags from?

Aquastar at Yishun Central sells them at $2 per bag.

[KingFish]

Don't think cotton bags will last very long in saltwater.

Suggest you to get the bags they sell at the LFS, its rather cheap, about $3-4 a piece.

Better that than coming back home to have your filter media all over your tank.

[arcanehacker]

Aquastar at Yishun Central sells them at $2 per bag.

dunno if its the same one but the last time I use that, it tore. Their $2 ones are still nylon but small holes.

[arcanehacker]

Don't think cotton bags will last very long in saltwater.

Suggest you to get the bags they sell at the LFS, its rather cheap, about $3-4 a piece.

Better that than coming back home to have your filter media all over your tank.

I dun see why cotton or cloth bags shouldn't last very long in SW.

I find nylon bags tear easily.

[KingFish]

Its a simple matter of biodegradability.

Logically, cotton being organic matter is easier to breakdown of its hydrocarbon makeup than synthetic materials such as plastic, polystyrene, et cetera.

Cotton will take about 1-5 months in various conditions to biodegrade while Styrofoam will take forever.

capisca?

[bawater]

You may try it and the worst is that the media is spilled all over the place. i tried the coconut squeeze bags long ago and stayed away from cotton from then on. Spotlight have some nice bags (either polyester or nylon) which they keep for decorations near the small coloured boxes for wrapping gifts for a few dollars which i use - so far they have lasted well over 12mths.

or watercircle as some fine mesh media bags.

"Cotton will dissolve in seawater" and is used in aquaculture for that specific purpose-

http://www.fukuina.com/shellfish/flexmesh_socking.htm

and just some generic news to back that up.

http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/fasern/baumwoll/abb9.htm

[Razo]

learn something new again..

[nicky30092002]

phew .. lucky i change the whole bag frequently ... too lazy to wash ...

[ervine]

Get a pair of nylon stockings loh... cheap and good... but becareful not to get a run in it...

[fishchemist]

Basically both nylon and polyester material will still be weaken in an alkali media. Nylon consist of amide linkage while polyester consist of ester linkage, these bonds undergo alkaline hydrolysis(breaks down) under alkaline medium. However, the temperature in marine is usually low, the rate of reaction is usually very slow. Therefore, IMO changing these bags once in a few months shouldn't be an issue.