# German filter?



## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Help? Can't remember what the German filter is called that is a big sponge on the side of your tank with tubes and powerhead? Anyone help?
:-? :fish: :-?


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## imusuallyuseless (Dec 28, 2005)

mattenfilter


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Thank you imusually useless!  :fish:


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

For parts and materials in the US, I've used Swiss Tropicals in Columbus Ohio to make my current Mattenfilters. I used to use them years ago and had cichlids spawning everywhere, but switched to "high tech". Today I'm taking a bunch of those "cool" filters to the local club fall auction. They all still work but the Mattenfilter works better.


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Mcdaphnia - Do you run them alone or with something else? In another post it was even suggested to attach plants directly to foam to help hide it (maybe it was you who said this).
Wouldn't it be difficult to clean with all those plants on it? Have you tried it? Thanks!
:fish: :thumb: :fish:


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Yes it would be difficult to clean with plants attached, but it never seems to get dirty, and it's still a lot easier to clean than other filters. Most of the time you can just thin out the plants and the clogging is in the Java fern roots or the moss, not the filter. To clean it, which might be every few years, pull off all the plants, set it on the deck outside, hose it down then while it's full of water, pick it up and drop it flat onto the floor from about 3 - 4 times until most of the detritus is out. Then hose off your self and the general area. The sponge lasts longer when cleaned this way opposed to walking on it and squeezing out the dirt which I used to do. It is faster too. I'd only put plants on it deliberately when it's a background for the tank. Right now all mine are set up as dividers and only one tank has some Java fern volunteering to grow on the Mattenfilter.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Oops, I meant drop it from 3 to 4 feet high, 3 to 4 times. Too late to edit.


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Do you use any other filter with these as they would only be bio filters - right? I assume you still vaccuum and do weekly water changes?
Thanks again!
:fish: :fish: :fish:


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Amazilia said:


> Do you use any other filter with these as they would only be bio filters - right? I assume you still vaccuum and do weekly water changes?
> Thanks again!
> :fish: :fish: :fish:


They are a bit more than biofilters. The stuff you usually clean from a filter and the tank bottom tends to accumulate much less with this filter so you don't need other filtration.

This is not for oscars or huge aggressive cichlids that will eat sponges. They can destroy this one too.


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Me thinks I'm gonna have to try one! : ) :fish: :thumb: :fish:


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Amazilia said:


> Me thinks I'm gonna have to try one! : ) :fish: :thumb: :fish:


Here you go! Directions for construction in English and pictures, and a source for the right foam mailed to you from Ohio USA without having to go to Germany and bring it back.

http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret%20F ... 0Foam.html


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Thanks McDaphnia! Although a trip to Europe might be fun!


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Amazilia said:


> Thanks McDaphnia! Although a trip to Europe might be fun!


 I always found it fun. My wife and I have spent a couple midsummer weeks in Poland and I learned about 40 Polish words, most of them ice cream flavors. A "dip" was about the size of a melon baller, but about $.02, so even if you got 40 dips, about the size of a triple, it was only about eighty cents US. I saw many fish in pet shops in Poland and Germany. Lots of fun. However in Poland most towns even small ones had a public aquarium which had closed down since public funds for them had stopped during the changeover from one system to another. I saw red angelfish in Poland fifteen years ago that are just now starting to be available, and not as red as those were. Our vacation this year was three weeks in Australia. We saw blue guppies and yellow platies in the Queensland Rainforest where they have spread to areas it's not likely people could have taken them.


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

McDaphnia that sounds like you had a blast! Hubby and I travelled to warm places like Jamaica, Caymans, Mexico, Barbados etc when we were younger as the kids just were not arriving. We are now much older have adopted two older siblings so we have been so busy with a 12 and 14 y/o! My son would love to go on an African safari one day and I would love to go with him and see Lake Malawi up close. How cool to see Red Angels. Don't think I've ever seen a red one. My aquarium hobby didn't start until after we adopted 4 years ago so although we enjoyed snorkelling and seeing the beautiful SW fish didn't mean much at the time. One day we will travel again....


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

Mcdaphnia said:


> Amazilia said:
> 
> 
> > Do you use any other filter with these as they would only be bio filters - right? I assume you still vaccuum and do weekly water changes?
> ...


Is that because of the larger surface area of the foam? 
And it says it reduces nitrates--is that true of any biofilter, or is there something about the sponge that enhances growth of anaerobic bacteria that break down nitrates?

Don't mean to hijack the thread--now I'm really intrigued about the foam filter idea even though I have an old Eheim pro canister that I was going to use in a new tank setup. Canisters are such a drag to clean :roll: This sounds too good to be true!


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Put the Mattenfilter near one end of the tank with the cannister filter intake behind it. The cannister will run the Mattenfilter, and the cannister will stay clean much longer than you are used to. I believe, although it may be a semantic point, that the denitrating bacteria are facultative bacteria, not anaerobic. This is something that happens when the oxygen level is low, not non-existent from what I've read. Though if you read advertising claims about this, they may be oversimplifying the process so that it's easy to assume they are saying something a skeptical reading suggests they are not quite saying.


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

Since this is just for a 40-breeder, maybe I'll just use that foam as a large sponge prefilter hidden behind some rockwork.


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## Amazilia (Sep 5, 2009)

Good questions scrubjay. Hope someone has an answer. I don't see this as hijacking at all! Everyone is invited to join this thread as questions are great for gaining more knowledge and making us all better fishkeepers! :wink: :fish: :thumb:


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## Vexlore (Sep 1, 2009)

I'm currently here in Germany and my mother (Also into Cichlids) sugested I post on this subject for saying this is what I use. So I made a new post on it as to not truely hijack this one.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... 28#1408928


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