Hygger Aquarium Double Sponge Filter, Comes with 2 Spare Sponges, 1 Bag of Bio Ceramic Media Balls, Quiet Submersible Foam Filter for Fresh Water and Salt-Water Fish Tank (S)

This review includes tips for the extra sponges!!! I have had 3 of these for over a year and highly recommend them. I have all size smalls and use them on 5 gal, 8gal, 10gal tanks filled with mostly shrimp and snails and a few fish. They work great and they require little to no maintenance. They easily come apart if you do need to clean or maintain and there are no moving pieces to worry about breaking with wear and tear. They come with the bio balls and an extra set of sponges. They don't require a lot of air, so I'm able to use a splitter on each air pump to also power bubblers. They are completely quiet depending on what level you place the output spout compared to water level. Shrimp and snails love them because they are safe havens to rest on full of yummy things to eat. They cause little to no motion of the water if you have inhabitants that like things calm. And they there is zero risk of having a filter accidentally suck up a baby of any species. The black sponge blends in well with the background and the only part that actually sticks up and shows out of the tank is the tiny clear airline hose. In over a year. I've yet to come anywhere close to needing to replace the sponges, however they have come in handy: 1. When cycling a new aquarium, I bought another of these and swapped out one of the towers (balls and foam) from an existing aquarium with a new one. I did this with two different tanks. This had little to no impact on the established tanks since I only took half of the filter media. It got the new tank to cycle almost immediately. 2. To keep from vacuuming up tiny fish fry during water changes, I use one of the spare sponges on the end of the siphon hose (1/2"). It won't suction up debris with it on, but it works great for water changes in a heavily planted tank where I let the plants handle the debris. 3. (Sort of a spin off of 1 and 2). If you have multiple tanks and are worried about cross contamination, store one of the extra sponges in the back of the tank. Use this if you need to spin off an emergency bin for any reason, and/or when changing water on that specific tank.

I wanted to write this review to address the most common complaints I saw when looking for a new sponge filter. 1. "The replacement sponges were not included." The replacement sponges come squashed into the bio media compartments and you must disassemble the filter and remove them (which you should have noticed if you had bothered using the bio media). 2. "It made my water cloudy." Rule #1 of aquariums, RINSE EVERYTHING FIRST, the bio balls are covered in dust generated from rubbing against each other for however long they've been in the packaging. 3. "Not enough suction power." In many cases see point 1, its the same people who couldn't find their replacement sponges, and pretty self explanatory why that would cause issues. For everyone else, you need an air pump powerful enough to create the lift required to generate flow. A ~3v is good enough for the small, and a 4v for the medium. A 2.9v whisper quiet generates enough flow to piss off my betta if I don't regulate it. 4. "It stops working after a couple weeks" These are higher quality lower micron sponges, not your cheap drive a car through the gaps sponge filters of the early 00's. They will clog faster, reducing flow, than the aforementioned sponges. I suggest waiting 2 weeks after installation, removing 1 side for cleaning and the following week do the other side, essentially cleaning or replacing 1 sponge per week, and you shouldn't have this issue. (See addendum for cleaning sponges at end to save some headache.) 5. "It killed all my (fill in the blank)" No it didn't, you did or something unrelated did. See points 2 and 3, nothing in these filters themselves is toxic, nor will they change any of your water parameters beyond that of filtering or the lack of filtering if not setup properly. BONUS CLEANING TIP: As I stated above, after about 2 weeks in the tank you should clean 1 sponge, then the opposing sponge the following week, then just alternate each week. But as anyone who's ever had sponge filters can tell you, they make a cloudy mess when its time to remove them for cleaning. What I've found that works the best to mitigate that, is take a ziploc bag, filled with tank water, and place over the sponge when you remove it. You can then just squish it out in the bag or in a bucket of dechlorinated water before putting it back on the filter. Its still gonna put some particulate into the tank, but significantly less than any other method I've found. PS, the nasty ass brown water you end up with? Perfect for plants/garden etc. All said these are great sponge filters with a built in media compartment and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a sponge style filter.

I loved mine and I’m about to buy another because they work great. However when cleaning mine must have gotten damaged because it no longer shoots air out maybe a bubble or two a minute leaks out the top where it use to be a constant stream. I also want to add I have a 15 gallon cube full of shrimp and snails and these filters require almost every 2 month cleanings. The sponges need to be squeezed out or you will notice lack of bubbling because not enough water is passing through

This filter has to be the best one I’ve ever used. It cleared my water up incredibly fast and got rid of the algae which had infested my old one. The system works as such. Two barrels where the sponges go on, and underneath is your ceramic ball storage where it works as a good basic filter, then it goes through the sponges, and out of the top using airflow from a air pump. Make sure to buy an air pump or it’s not usable. Great for the price easy to use and not very noisy. Feels decent quality but just gets the job done

Perfect filter for my 29 gallon tank. I still use a HOB with it, but I like this a lot. It was inexpensive, and easy to set up. It functions exactly like I need it to with very little noise, or water agitation, for a betta. I'm not sure why some people didn't leave it goid reviews. Maybe they aren't using it correctly, or it's too small for their tanks, or possibly because their fish have large bio loads, like goldfish, or overstocked tanks. I like it a lot.

I purchased two of these to put in my two 10 gallon betta tanks to replace the hang on back filters whose flow was just too strong. I specifically chose this particular sponge filter because I wanted to be able to put Seachem Matrix in the bottom cups. I really like these filters and they work just as described. Yes, it is on the big side but that’s never been a concern of mine and I have large plants that hide them relatively well. It was easy and straightforward to put together. I’ve had them for around 4 months and I love them. I ran them alongside my HOB filter for one month to make sure the beneficial bacteria would get on these filters and then removed the HOBs. I never had an issues with my water parameters changing. In fact, in one of my tanks which is slightly overstocked, my nitrate levels went really far down after switching to this filter. I run the two ten gallon tanks and a five gallon tank off of a Tetra 40 gallon air pump. I also use a 4 port adjustable attachment so I can lower the air output in the tanks to lower the water flow. It works fabulously. In terms of cleaning, I squeeze one side of the sponge filter every two weeks into the old aquarium water. I never get much gunk off of it so it seems to be filtering exceptionally.

I posted this review originally because I could not find the extra sponges, but they are inside of the compartments for the media balls. Will update when the pump is running. The instructions say that a pump check valve is required, which I do not have, so I will have to order those first.

It does great! I’ve been raising and keeping fish since I was little and I cannot recommend this more. I have it in a 10 gallon tank with major amounts of duckweed and some other in-substrate plants. In the tank is some tetras and my betta and it cleans up after them very well. Although, I do have to clean/wring out the sponges once per week or else the suction power suffers. As for the included media, I use some water softener filter media because my water is very hard, but the filter media that comes with it isn’t bad. For sound, my air pump is more annoying than the filter. It just sounds like rushing water (like a river) and i find it peaceful. It’s a few feet away from my head and i never find it hard to fall asleep. I would definitely recommend it over an otb filter. Especially for non-plakat bettas and shrimp. Not to mention how good it is for how cheap it is 🫣.

Easy install. In 3 days I cannot believe how much clearer my water is. I am using in a 15gal tank with betta and shrimp. Very satisfied.

Product arrived per order and on time, very happy with the service!

I gave it one star because it still works in my aquarium and my first Hygger Aquarium Double Sponge Filter 10-40 gallon one I love it easy maintenance and install, but this second one I bought the bigger version 15-55 gallon came to me incomplete, without the two suction cops, ceramic media balls and the two media container. I advice you to look else where