# Hamburg Mattenfilter style filter



## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret Hamburg Mattenfilter Kits.html

Anyone here have these kind of filters in their tanks?

I'm trying to centralize 3 of my tanks with this as it's more efficient running one air pump rather than 3 HOBs. The recent power outage also gave me a small ammonia spike in my QT tank and it's going through a mini cycle. My thinking is this filter system will take longer before it goes anaerobic. Not an issue but the power saving alone is worth it for me. The tanks are for shrimp and QT if needed. So the questions are:

Any issues/advice using with 1-3" soil/clay substrate tanks?
Any issues with a planted tank without injected CO2?
What PPI is good for them?
How strong of an air pump would I need? (2-10g and 1-20g tall tank) 
How do you clean them? (When you have substrate)
Any local source for Poret foam? (The other thread didn't have any info)

Thanks !


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Easier to just buy a decent sponge filter =D


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

AGREED,,,, i'm running all sponge filters and it's way cheaper and very simple and way less maintenance.......
Sorry can't offer any advice on the other method....
cheers!!!!


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I should mention, anything using air to filter the water like that will be counter-productive if you are planning on using co2. However, stuff like java moss will grow fine.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

There is far less maintenance with the Hamburg filter than any other filter I know of. Definitely less than conventional sponge filters such as the Hydrosponge. There is some expense when first setting up, but the potential filtration you get is much higher than with even the best sponge filters. they do work in planted tanks, and there are different ways of implementing them. Ian Fuller, cory god, who spoke here on the weekend as CAOACS guest has them in pretty well all of his tanks. He has 54 tanks in a 7' x 9' shed with 68 species of cory. The relative cost to efficiency is not high.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Why are they less maintenance? I find sponges basically maintenance free.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Sponges need to be cleaned out regularly, the Hamburg can go a year or more between cleanings. i use mostly ATI Hydrosponges I bought used from someone who converted to the Hamburg in all 40 of his tanks. Some have gone over a year without cleaning. Every few weeks the Hydrosponges need cleaning out.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I use the hydrosponges too, and I haven't cleaned my out for almost 6 months. Mind you, I do clean out the grow-out tanks ones everytime I switch fish, just for disease prevention etc. Also, my breeding tanks have a very low bioload, which could explain why mine need so little maintenance.


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## PPulcher (Nov 17, 2006)

BillD said:


> Sponges need to be cleaned out regularly, the Hamburg can go a year or more between cleanings. i use mostly ATI Hydrosponges I bought used from someone who converted to the Hamburg in all 40 of his tanks. Some have gone over a year without cleaning. Every few weeks the Hydrosponges need cleaning out.


Is this becase of the relatively large surface area and lower flow rates of the Hamburg filter?

I rinse out my hydrosponges and so-called "Ultimate" sponge filters every couple of months, but I generally run the air pretty slowly through them.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

Thanks for the replys

I've been using a Hydro3 on one of the 10 gal and some ebay sponges in the 20. Have to clean the 20 every month as it clogs fast. Rather than get 2 more Hydros I thought I would try something new. Plus I love the idea of shrimps on wall picking at food.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

PPulcher said:


> Is this becase of the relatively large surface area and lower flow rates of the Hamburg filter?
> 
> I rinse out my hydrosponges and so-called "Ultimate" sponge filters every couple of months, but I generally run the air pretty slowly through them.


Yes and the larger pore size helps also. You can't tell when a hydro sponge gets clogged, but with the mat filter, the water level behind the mat gets lower than the tank level. My hydro sponges clog up in a few weeks.


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## PPulcher (Nov 17, 2006)

Thanks! Pore size seems to be the key.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

A pore size of 20ppi seems to be ideal for most uses. Reticulated foam sleeves are available for Hydrosponges. Sugarglider has them in his list of items.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Try this company: http://www.eversoft.ca/index.html

Looks like they have the polyether foam. It's probably much cheaper than getting it from Big Al's (who also have large blocks of it in stock - I bought a ~16" square 1" thick sheet and I remember it being pretty expensive for what it is).


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> Try this company: http://www.eversoft.ca/index.html
> 
> Looks like they have the polyether foam. It's probably much cheaper than getting it from Big Al's (who also have large blocks of it in stock - I bought a ~16" square 1" thick sheet and I remember it being pretty expensive for what it is).


Sent an email to them asking for Reticulated and Open cell foam but no reply so far. Hope this works out as my other source requires me to by a 10'x4' foam sheet.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

The best way to do this is to put together a group order and the manufacturer will cut it up to size for you.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> The best way to do this is to put together a group order and the manufacturer will cut it up to size for you.


Sounds like a plan, I can avoid making cutting mistakes this way. Just hope there's enough people that want foam if eversoft doesn't go through.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

Eversoft got back to me. They have something called "EZ dri" which is a reticulated foam that looks like a 15-20PPI range.They do custom cuts and the price is good. Only problem is that it has built in fungicidal additives which at best will stop anything from growing on it. At worst, it'll kill everything in the tank. 

So any interest in a foam sheet group buy from another source?


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