SPONGE or not to SPONGE?

[jervismun]

I heard that adding filter medium like sponges will do more harm than good to the tank. Can you guys enlighten me the theory behind it? Thanks.

[hondaker]

Erm, hope the following would give a clearer idea

Sponge---->Traps food/fish poo/dirt--->Decompose into ammonia--->Create nitrite/nitrate--->Becomes nitrate factory

Of course, if you clean your sponge every now and then, shouldn't be much of a problem

[jervismun]

Oh cleaning it frequently I shall... stop using sponges I wont... buying better sponges I will... lol!

I always thought some reefers avoiding sponges coz they can be bacteria factory (just like ceramic, bio-ball and what not). I thought the sponge will fight with LR in terms of bacteria spawning, hence once we remove the sponge, it will cause a lack of biological filtration hence crashing the tank!

I will clean my filters every 1 1/2 weeks (with no fish feeding). Should be ok right?

[hondaker]

lol, the purposes of bioballs, ceremic rings are to house the bacterias, but it was found out later that they trap dirt also, thus fueling the nitrates to the water, hence many reefers abandoned them

however, there is some products that make use of bio-balls and such to de-nitrify the nitrates, for example, the aquamedic de-nitrifier(not sure whether this is the correct name).

no fish feeding? then i guess should be ok

[juscool]

Confused here weather both of you are talking about the same sponge.

1) Sponge like in Blue and Red Sponge

2) Sponge like in for the filters (ie. white filter sponges you put in filters)

[hondaker]

i think he is referring to media filter's sponge

re-read the first post

[jervismun]

Lol! Yeah a bit confusing...