Hikari Bacto-Surge High Density Foam Filter, Large

Worked exactly how i wanted. Very easy to use and maintain. I found it so easy to use.

I had never heard of this type of filter before, but my daughter who is OCD about perfection did. So we added one to her 40 gallon Aquarium. She has a lot of live plants and the water was always murky. Not anymore. Within 2 days, crystal clear and the critical water measurements come back great. Couldn't be happier! Pro's: Actually clears up the water from live plant water tints, murkey, and the little amount of dirt from the play sand. The circulation filter did not! No noise inexpensive easy to clean Con's: Big and can be an eyesore in a smaller tank. Surround with plants if you can. See pics. The one pic with the thermometer is also for the thermostat review. Please note that we added this to the regular type circulation filter. This did a much better job clearing up the water.

While it's a great sponge filter (no doubt about that!), it may not be what you're looking for. First, it's HUGE! I underestimated how big it is. I have a heavily planted 40 gal tank with driftwood and had a difficult time getting it wedged in there. It's never coming out. Second, if you want small aerating bubbles, this isn't it! The bubbles are HUGE too. I may try the airstone hack I've read about. I bought this to use as backup filtration and aeration with a battery powered pump for power outages as I live in hurricane alley where we can lose power for days! (I lost a few fish after Hurricane Florence). I had no trouble getting it to sink. Read the directions and you won't have a problem. I soaked it in a bucket of treated water for an hour with intermittent squeezes. TLDR: It's huge and has large bubbles. Soak it first to get it to sink.

Works great in my 40 gallon breeder and I like how I don’t need to buy air stones anymore for my sponge filters.

This thing is the BOMB! I cut out the center, in the sections of the down tube (inside the sponge) (you can remove it and pull them apart), add a small air stone so that it sits on the bottom of the down tube, with a small piece of airline, then connect the airline to the top that will go to your air pump and it's amazing!!! I tried quite a few in 35 years, and this is by far the best. I run these in all my tanks with a canister filter and the water is incredible. The longer the airline, the bigger the air pump you will need for maximum lift. I squeeze them out in a bucket of aquarium water every other water change.

Works great, perfect for a betta fish or something that prefers low flow. Currently cycling this tank and all is going well using this filter. High quality foam and a breeze to setup. I did have to weight it down with some rocks. The base is weighted, but it wasn't enough to keep it from floating up. It would stay down for a couple of hours and then it would start floating. Not a big deal though. I would definitely purchase this again and very much recommend it. In fact, I probably will be purchasing another sponge filter shortly for a quarantine tank, and I will for sure use Bacto-Surge again.

The Hikari Bacto-Surge filter sponge is actually smaller than the Aquapapa/generic aquarium sponge filter is that I've been using in the past, which cost about 5 to 6 dollars less than the Hikari-- and they seem to be upon a close back to back/side-by-side comparison the same PPI of foam. The Hikari filter is at least one full inch shorter, which may not seem like much but certainly lowers the surface area for beneficial bacteria to build and keep my tank balanced and cycled. The worst part is that the sheep sponges that I have bought in the past have been much easier to use with air stones! You can check online videos, and the innertube for the Hikari filter sponge simply does not work properly if you are going to do some modification and add airline tubing and and and air stone. I had to use leftover plastic pieces from my generic sponges to get it to work. Definitely not going to purchase this Hikari sponge again!

These filters are awesome. I like the fact that they help keep the ammonia level in check. In one tank I use it with an hanging outside filter because of the size and output of waste. In another tank where there are smaller fish I use by itself. I will see as time goes by if I will need to add another outside filter. Highly recommend, by the way the big tank with a lot of waste is gone down to no ammonia levels detected in it. It was in extreme ammonia territory before I implemented this sponge. It is not a fast fix, it is a biological filter and it takes at least a month or more for the good bacteria to build up in it. Never used these before, and I am hooked!

Great product and arrived well within expected delivery range.

Good product does the job well

It come really quick I had trouble at first didn't read the side of the box it come in silly me but i figured it out and it works great would buy it again .