# Poret Foam



## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

It great stuff. Easy to clean sponges in a few sizes that allow you to custom build any piece you want. It can be found here 
http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret Filter Foam.html


----------



## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

Green Leaf Aquariums said:


> It great stuff. Easy to clean sponges in a few sizes that allow you to custom build any piece you want. It can be found here
> http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret Filter Foam.html


The cleaning direction says that it should not be squeezed. How are you able to clean it well without squeezing the foam? Thanks.


----------



## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Running under old tank water Its just like any other quality sponge, if you squeeze to much in time it will collapse.


----------



## deleted_user_7 (Jul 7, 2003)

It looks just like the blue coarse foam that eheim uses...

Does anyone know the pore count on the eheim blue coarse pads? I think I'd like to get some finer pads with smaller/more pores to go after the eheim coarse blue foam pads.

It would be nice to get a foam small enough to replace the fine white filter pads completely.

Its strange that this post was made because I was just about to make one about using smaller/finer foam in place of fine filter pads. Like the memory foam used for pillows and beds, but that might be too fine.


----------



## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

You can clean it easily using a garden hose with nozzle or just smack it against the side of the sink to dislodge the gunk. I use the spray hose on my sink and it works very well.

Poret foam is very different from Eheim blue coarse foam. I don't know what the pore count on the Eheim foam is though, sorry. I cut some 10PPI, 20PPI, and 30PPI to use in my Eheim 2260 filter. It seems to work fairly well but is extremely heavy when dirty.


----------



## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

deeda said:


> You can clean it easily using a garden hose with nozzle or just smack it against the side of the sink to dislodge the gunk. I use the spray hose on my sink and it works very well.
> 
> Poret foam is very different from Eheim blue coarse foam. I don't know what the pore count on the Eheim foam is though, sorry. I cut some 10PPI, 20PPI, and 30PPI to use in my Eheim 2260 filter. It seems to work fairly well but is extremely heavy when dirty.


I think the Eheim blue coarse foam is 20PPI. What's the difference between the Eheim blue coarse foam and the Poret? Why do you use 3 different PPI counts (10, 20 and 30) of Poret foam? Is it alright to use city water to clean the foam? Will the foam re-colonize with denitrifying bacteria fast enough? Thanks.


----------



## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Crispino Ramos said:


> I think the Eheim blue coarse foam is 20PPI. What's the difference between the Eheim blue coarse foam and the Poret? The Poret 20PPI is green & 2" thick and looks slightly denser than the Eheim blue coarse pad, which is 1 1/4" thick. When I hold both pieces up to a light source, I can see more light through the Eheim pad than I can through the 20PPI Poret pad, even accounting for the thicker Poret pad.
> Why do you use 3 different PPI counts (10, 20 and 30) of Poret foam? I use it for progressively finer filtration. The 10PPI is blue & comes in a 4" thickness only, so I put it after the EhfiMech media. Then I use a 20PPI green 2" piece and then a 30PPI blue or black 2" piece. My Ehfi Substrat Pro is put in last.
> Is it alright to use city water to clean the foam? That depends on who you ask. If this is the only filter on your tank & you don't have any substrate or rocks in the tank, you might want to use tank water to clean the foam. BUT, if you have biomedia in your filter besides the foam, you should be OK. Just rinse the foam when clean in dechlorinated water to eliminate any chlorine or chloramine residue from your tap water.
> Will the foam re-colonize with denitrifying bacteria fast enough? I don't personally feel that ALL of your bacteria is located in your filter. Your filter should be mainly used to remove fish waste & debris from your tank. The filter does process this waste (as it is designed to do) but it is not the only place the bacteria reside. They should be on all the hard surfaces inside your aquarium. Thanks.


I hope this answers your questions somewhat.

Dee


----------



## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

*Dee, 

Thank you for all the informative and useful answers that are useful to me and other members.

Cris*


----------



## Jane of Upton (Apr 2, 2006)

Great Thread! And, I agree - thanks Dee - that is very helpful information.

I've been interested in that Poret foam as well. What I'm wondering is, how do you cut holes, or cores into it if you want to put a strainer into it to hook it up to a power head or the like?

The coarse stuff looks like it would be a nice intake tube protector for fry or other smaller critters.

Would you use an apple coring kitchen gadget? One of those hole-drilling drill bit things (sorry, I know they have a name, but it eludes me at the moment) or some other tool? I would think it wouldn't be as effective just to put a long, X-shaped cut down into a piece of it, since there would then be compression on the faces against the inlet strainer down the center (for structural support), and this would decrease efficiency.

Sheesh, its hard to describe what I mean. But, at the website, they offer long "noodles" of the stuff, in a 4"x4" size, that says you can cut it to any size for quick sponge filters. But how do you get the hole in the middle?

I'm sure I'll dope-slap myself when someone finally enlightens me, but at the moment, I'm stumped.

Thanks,
Jane


----------



## yikesjason (Jul 2, 2008)

I looked into poret for my plant drip wall, but ended up using bulk pond filter media from a local pond supply store. It was a lot cheaper.


----------



## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

Jane of Upton said:


> Great Thread! And, I agree - thanks Dee - that is very helpful information.
> 
> I've been interested in that Poret foam as well. What I'm wondering is, how do you cut holes, or cores into it if you want to put a strainer into it to hook it up to a power head or the like?
> 
> ...


Swiss Tropicals sells them already cored or with holes to fit into a strainer.

http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret Filter Foam.html


----------



## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Jane, just use a sharp, non-serrated kitchen knife and cut a square hole that is smaller than the diameter of your intake tube.


----------



## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I use the Aquaclear sponges, and a much coarser sponge for intake covers. 
I simply cut an X and let it compress. 
I figure this way:
a) I want the water to pass from coarse to finer, and the compressed is a little bit finer, so that is OK. 
b) Over time the sponges I use soften and the X spreads out, so there is probably less compression going on than at first. 

I have used the pond equivalent to Poret that is sold at the LFS, and it works great in my sumps. I turn off the pump and clean all the media in the sump, then siphon it out. The Poret type material I simply slosh back and forth until it is clean; it does not take long at all. 

In a planted tank the plants are so much a part of the biofilter that there seems to be no problem in washing filter media in chlorinated water. I am not sure I would do that in a non-planted tank, though.


----------

