Sponge filter do not remove ammonia

[lalalatio]

The sponge filter doesn't seem to work in my 10-20l aquariums.

I performed tests on a 10l aquarium, not set up, inhabited by a single Guppy fish, without and with a small sponge filter (no advanced) with flow 200l/h and optimal water change 15% every 7 days.

These were the results; days-(ammonia ppm):

without filter: 5-(0.02) 10-(0.10) 15-(0.23) 20-(0.35) 25-(0.42) 30-(0.42)
with filter: 5-(0.03) 10-(0.12) 15-(0.25) 20-(0.39) 25-(0.50) 30-(0.59)

The ammonia is higher in the tank with the filter.
Shouldn't the function of the filter be to remove it?

[IronNightKnight]

You should use the Rings and the Bioball in a autside Filter. and change the water to 50 % all 5 Days i think it works !

[IronNightKnight]

or use differrent chemicals to clean the water too !

[lalalatio]

Ok but since it is a simulator, only an internal sponge filter for a small 10l aquarium with only one fish seems to me the ideal choice.
How do you explain the numbers above?


Changing the water by 50% every 7 days gives these results:

without filter: 5-(0.12) 10-(0.20) 15-(0.36) 20-(0.39) 25-(0.31) 30-(0.23)
with filter: 5-(0.11) 10-(0.18) 15-(0.31) 20-(0.37) 25-(0.38) 30-(0.34)

they improve in comparison but are higher, moreover varying the flow 0-400l/h seems to change nothing.

[lalalatio]

From the information on the sponge filter it says that it should reduce ammonia by 30% instead it seems to increase it : /

[BitBros Games]

Overall, the differences in ammonia are not really significant: they are too high for the fish in all cases. The 30% is the effectiveness, meaning there are more effective ways to remove it.

What first comes to my mind from what you describe:
1) Have you enabled auto filter maintenance in the Game-specific settings (or regularly cleaned it)? If not, your filter will be more than dirty and ineffective after the time you report here.
2) The sponge itself does not reduce ammonia, it reduces organic waste (which decomposes to a bit of ammonia nevertheless). The sponge reduces ammonia if you have a proper nitrogen cycle running. For this, you need more ammonia to let the bacteria grow. (With the ammonia levels you state here, bacteria will not grow.) This can be done by adding ammonia with the dosing pump (or adding heaps of fish and have them get sick, which is not the proper way). I would recommend around 5ppm once. Then the bacteria will grow and will be enough to keep the ammonia at zero in the future. Letting this run will give you the typical nitrogen cycle behavior with falling ammonia, rising nitrosomonas, increasing nitrite, rising nitrobacteria, falling nitrite. Potentially nitrate will then also fall, as there might be some denitrifying bacteria in your gravel or deco.

[lalalatio]

I performed the test without ever cleaning the filter, but it should matter little because already in the first days when it is still clean ammonia is higher than the tank without a filter.
I expected the opposite but I repeated the test several times and the same values as above come out every time.

I don't understand why, under the same tank conditions, there must be more ammonia with the filter.

[BitBros Games]

Just modeled this here. The difference seems to come from rounding issues with the low overall load in the tank. Will improve the internal accuracy in the next update.

Generally, as I noted above, the sponge does not reduce ammonia directly in a fresh tank. You need to get the nitrogen cycle running at first. Even if you use the largest sponge and do not get the cycle running, your ammonia will eventually become too high.

[lalalatio]

I understand, thanks for the intervention.
This is a beautiful aquarium simulator and I expect great things.
Good work.