DIY Matten Filters

Fern showed me this ...Thought it was a must post. Enjoy!


http://www.tfhmagazine.com/blogs/2010/12/08/mattenfilters/

yeah I have seen swisstropicals make these but they are outrageous in price $20 for a 10 gallon sized....

Does anyone know where to get open core foam in mat form to make these with?

I seen this type of filter in an article about a year ago but the foam was extremely expensive at that time and only overseas suppliers carried it.

yeah I was almost thinking of using the Marineland filter floss and attatching it to some plasticcraft backing to give it rigidity and shape

That may work

Next time I go to a hardware store I will keep my eyes open.

I saw on a few other sites where people were buying open cell foam from homedepot...I asked and asked no one has ever seen it there...went to a funrinture refurbasher...only thing he had was closed cell foam so if anyone sees some let me know

I have a lot of the Poret Foam. It works great. I use the wall filter design for all the tanks in my fishroom and haven't had to clean it for year. It is $100 for a 39"x39" piece at swisstropicals.com from Stephan Tanner. He is very knowledgeable about the product and goes out of his way to help you out.

My last pic up


After 1st 6 months of use


lifter


Filters I made for my first all in my fishroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkBRm0CA9K0

I plan to buy some poret foam and I don't think the pricing is bad and I am VERY conservative

ck out the website for yourself and ask Dr Tanner any questions via email...he has been awesome at assisting me on what I plan to do

I will be purchasing a 19.5x13 30ppi as well as the 4x4x39 30ppi square material

the key is to use your imagination on how you can cut the pieces down to what you need.....for example, the 4x4x39 material will be cut to fit into my fluvals as the 2 upright sponges and the 19.5x13 sheet will be used in the trays as well as in my eclipse tray and the HOB filter area

if i can figure this out, i know the minds on this forum, HRoT & KMX & Fern, can figure out even more

my cost will be $55 which includes shipping and should take care of all of my filters which consists of 3 fluvals, 1 eclipse, 2 hob and 2 sponge filters

I plan to order after Christmas so if anyone wants to join me, let me know as the more we reduce shipping cost (which is a flat $10) the more I can spend on foam

Any links on sellers? Now that I am thinking of it this could solve my fine particulate issue on my big system

I have a few sheets to sell. I need 32 for my fishroom so I have 8 left over. I have black 30ppi and green 20ppi.

Dr. Tanner of swisstropicals.com sells it too. If you aren't in a rush, he goes to a lot of conventions. So if you have one in the area, you can save on shipping.

Ya I'm in no rush at all, mostly because I am broke

I don't get it. Where is this located in the tank? I can't picture how this works... The link didn't provide pics of it in action but it sounds like a good setup lol.

oops

grad2k1rulz wrote:

I don't get it. Where is this located in the tank? I can't picture how this works... The link didn't provide pics of it in action but it sounds like a good setup lol.

Essentially this would be the back wall of the tank, or a side of the tank, filtering everything before it meets your filter. However, I don't know why said material would be so highly beneficial, but perhaps I am missing something here. I like the idea of hiding the intake and prefiltering is always a plus, but why not just create a smaller cylinder structure covered with wadding with a light diffuser and fishing line, opposed to eliminating 3/4" of the entire back wall?

Why not just cut a grate and put wadding over the grate? why so much $$? I use pillow wadding to filter like this and it is cheap.

Seems like an expensive option to me...

ppi smeeshmeepshipie IMO... wadding works, 2 years+ if cleaned...

I agree with you there are several cheaper ways to make a similiar filter. The main reason people cover (usually the short side) side of an aquarium is to get the most surface area bang for your buck. With bacteria beds the more surface area the more bio load the filter can handle. That is also why they use porett foam it has a great cell structure that provides tons of surface area in a realatively small space. I tried a DIY version using floss and plastic craft sheets...went back to sponge filters and box filters..just easier to maintain than the knock off matten filters :)

Elrollo wrote:

I agree with you there are several cheaper ways to make a similiar filter. The main reason people cover (usually the short side) side of an aquarium is to get the most surface area bang for your buck. With bacteria beds the more surface area the more bio load the filter can handle. That is also why they use porett foam it has a great cell structure that provides tons of surface area in a realatively small space. I tried a DIY version using floss and plastic craft sheets...went back to sponge filters and box filters..just easier to maintain than the knock off matten filters :)

I have done many DIY projects and this one does work but... sponge filters are just so much easier to setup and take less space in the tank. The one really nice thing abotu these filters is that if you have fish that like to knock into things you can put the heater behind the mat and help protect it against the frantic fish!

Quote :

I like the idea of hiding the intake and prefiltering is always a plus, but why not just create a smaller cylinder structure covered with wadding with a light diffuser and fishing line, opposed to eliminating 3/4" of the entire back wall?

I'm torn, both ideas have good and bad aspects to them. I suppose it depends on the type of setup you have. If I have a stock tank that was just for fry and not for show I wouldn't like to do the back wall apposed to the cylinder. If it was my show tank I would probably stick with regular filtration or the cylinder. Good ideas that I will have to keep in mind either way!!

Every Matten set-up I have seen is for breeding purposes I have yet to see one used for a show tank (they might be out there I just have not seen or talked to anyone who uses them for show tanks). Most are used on the 10inch tanks (10 gal and 15 gal) so that you can get the most filters out of a sheet of poret. Like I posted earlier I just cannot see the value above sponge filters for the money.

As far as a show/display tank goes I would not use one. Much rather use a low profile cannister filter or use a sump with a built in overflow on the tank.

As far as hiding stuff goes the plastic craft with plants attatached to it (there is a model on here somewhee) is great for hiding intakes and heaters.