Hamburg Matten Aquarium Filter

Hi Guys,
Want to start a shrimp tank and I saw this the other day, think it is brilliant. What do you guys think of Hamburg Matten Aquarium Filter? for those of you not familiar here is a few links below. I have tried this long ago and looked very different and it is nearly impossible to get the correct foam, There are so many variations now it looks like it could do very well even in big tank. I think it is quite interesting especially the corner one.
here is a few links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_1cSR3mbM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd87e5iDCKM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJFcpIVJE8

For those with limited youtube access of limited cap here is a nice link. Would love to here what you guys think.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/a-basic...-mattenfilter/

 

Love them ... see HMF now and still to come

Still run 6 tanks with this ... very very very low maintenance - even on a convict tank. The twins (two 3 foot tanks) have never been cleaned nor have the 3 2 ft tanks. The convict tanks get a light vacuum say once a year.

Later Ferdie

 

Wow that is fantastic to see that they have been running that long with such low maintenance. I have read online on a company website in Germany with data that theirs has been running for more than 5 years. The other thing I like is that you can hide equipment like your heater. Some people have some pretty good ideas. I'm am strongly thinking of doing away with my new projects two aqua clear 70's and installing something like this. I like your corner idea also I have seen some modifications online like the picks below. The only thing is I have no idea where to get the foam.

 

Yeah that twill work perfect ..

See my new tank - Page 7 if @doug is still on TASA he might have some left. Or just phone Materials - Open Cell Foams Sondor Industries

I got some of that similar looking black from @Altum a few moons back - he might still have some.

Maybe @Drik has some new stock from Germany .. you might need to mail him.

Later Ferdie

 

I've bought the mats to make 3 of these, don't have them up and running yet, but according to what I've read they are an EXCELLENT type of filter. There's a rep for Poret in the northern Jo'burg area, I'll PM you details.

 

That's fantastic thank you, How does your design look?

 

@PsyXe -What is the big secrecy here?
I'd like those details too, ...and I am sure so would other forum members.
And first price would be the details of a rep in Cape Town, ...but that is probably pushing it a bit ... -haha

 

Hi,
For those of you that want to know more I pulled some data and info from the internet with some links to more reading material, The proof is in the pudding as they say. happy reading

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German language original URL: http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/FAQ.htm
Date 24-11-03
Author :Olaf Deters
The author gave writen consent to use his original article

The Hamburger Mattenfilter has gained it's rightful place among aquarists. Even mail-order shops offer the mat now, even though they would prefer to sell more expensive filter constructions. Since 1996, the mattenfilter has been explained on these pages in text, drawings and pictures. In the course of time some questions arose on behalf of readers and users and I get emails nearly everyday about this. The answers to questions have been incorporated either into the text or into these FAQs.


Can the Filtermat be too
large ?

No, but the velocity of
flow might get too low. If it is too low further problems arise. On one side
suction is
reduced. By this, a part of the biology supposed
to take place in the filter shifts to the aquarium.
In my
experiments, some considerable nitrite levels appeared
if speed was reduced too much.


I read that there should
be a gap of about 2cm between mat and pane, but then the pump doesn't fit in
between any longer. Can I have more distance or does this change anything in the
filtration effectiveness of the HMF?
No this has no
effect at all on filterpower. The 2cm result because of the construction and are
thought as a help in
understanding.


Can
the matfilter be used in seawater aquaria ?


Usually not. According to its
principle the matfilter produces nitrate and this is disposed of by water
changes or plant growth. In a seawater aquarium
the water changes are negligibly small so that this means there is no way of
nitrate disposal. Algae as well do not absorb nitrates too much. So the aquarium
has to get along with all the nitrate. In a seawater aquarium
one therefore installs skimmers which extract proteins etc, before turning into
nitrate.


How high is the waterspeed in the mat really
?

Very much higher than in the
calculation results. The calculation does not take into consideration the
narrowing of the diameter of the mat and its getting choked up with mud.
Therefore the real speed is much higher. In practice the recommended approximate
values turned out to be good as they contain some safety reserves. For this
reason there is no danger if one calculates a too low speed of waterflow.


The calculation does not prove right

An aquarium is a biological system and no
exact technical construction. Accordingly, it can be adjusted rather
inaccurately. The recommended values concerning Speed of
waterflow and circulations per hour are
approximative
values, which resulted mostly from experience. If the speed of water flow is
only 2cm /minute but the flow rate in the tank per hour is alright no problems
are to be expected. The flow rate could also go down to 1x per hour or rise to
the threefold. It will have no effect, if the speed of the wate rflow remains
within limits. Basically, my calculations only show the lower limit of
dimensioning, the filter can very well be larger .

Can I take a mat from
Home Depot/Bauhaus ?

There a
positive and negative experiences alike. I supect that Home
Depot/Bauhaus/Obi/... doesn't get supplied
for by always the
same plastics producer but changes its range of product over time and has
regional differences. For this reason one cannot make any general statements..
Its safer to use real filtermats. You can find them here.


How high must be the difference in water height in front of
and behind the mat ?

In new mats
one often finds no difference in waterheights. This does no matter. To exclude
any unwanted
circulations one can, in example, check with a
suspension of dry food if the water goes through the mat or if there
are some leaky parts at the margins of the mat. Maximum height
difference is somewhere around 4 - 5 cm, in my
experience.
Above that, the one-sided water pressure is so high that the mat bows heavily
and does not fit tight to
front and backsidewalls. Then one
should clean the mat more intensively, Note: There are aquaria
where this never occurs.


Where is the area of
calculation being measured, from upper edge to ground or to the bottom
side

Correctly from upper edge to
ground, but this is no exact science. One gets along well if one takes the
lenght of the sidewalls. As mentioned above, the existence of the Mattenfilter
is more important. It cannot be too large, but I would not size it smaller than
at the levels mentionned.


How thick should the mat be ?

A mat thickness of 5 cm turned out to be okay. Certainly, one
can choose a thicker one, but stability does not
increase
linearly. One says that the main activity happens in the first centimeters. The
other centimeters are for stability.


Can
I do without a pump ?

Two of my
tanks have a Mat on the entire backside, made of a 2cm coarse foam mat, which
has been glued with
aquarium silicone onto an extra pane of
glass. The Pump sucks water at one side and pushes it from the other side
through the tank. A river aquarium for catfishes. In the mat
enough organisms pile up and streaming is sufficient.
But
the aquarium is oblong. I would not recommend that for standard aquaria.


How long does a Mattenfilter needs to get going ?

Oh, difficult to say, Expect four weeks,
rather more. It depends decisively on water contamination. It really works well
from week 12 on, or more. But then it also works for a lifetime. If the tank has
been operated before with a canister filter one could and should let it run
parallely for a time (ca. 2 -4 weeks). Negative results are not to be
expected.


One says that it should still be squeezed
out.

No. It is not in the nature
of a mattenfilter to need any care. Only some occasional sucking off every
few
waterchanges is necessary. In tanks that are extremely
contaminated this might be the case more often and
more
periodically. Oddly enough, it also happens in normal aquaria.
But one does not need to and should not
squeeze it or de-mud
it by principle.


Can a mattenfilter be
operated externally, too ?

Principally yes, but some major advantages get lost: An
internal mattenfilter develops no suction effect worth to
speak of, as the suction takes place over a large area.
Therefore, a Mattenfilter "eats" no food or young fish. Now
if one uses the suction pipe of the filter to bring water to
the filter then again the suction basket might get blocked up with plant parts.
I do not believe this is a good idea.
"I has happened twice
that a part of the water finally made it to the appartment. The reason was,
besides me, the
hoses or the canisterfilter. Beside others,
the BIG advantage at the mattenfilter is that it is within the tank. If one
uses the Mattenfilter externally, one also looses this
advantage." (Henry Hoch, October 1999)



Can one also use two mats ?

Of course, if the aquarium is 1.80 m or more then I would
recommend that, if one takes care that there are no larger parts without
circulation. The circle effect gets lost hereby (applies to canisterfilters,
too). If in these tanks one installs a filter on one side only then, possibly,
the last 80cm are not moved any longer. One can prevent this if one places the
gushing out pipe to the other side and thereby pushes the water towards the
mat.


Which filter foam is better, the fine or the
coarse one ?

Doesn't matter, I
prefer the fine
foam. It also does not get sealed. But if one has some
fish which mess in the mud
or eat a lot, e.g. large
cichlids, then the coarse one will serve better. The foam is nothing but the
"stock shelf" for
the mud, the supporting framework. If that
is now fine or coarse does not matter for the filtration. Only the circeling
might take longer in a coarse mat, as its riddle effect is not as high.


How old does a mat get ?

My oldest mat lived to be eleven. The mats I had to change had
been beaten up with pushes from the hose at
multiple
cleanings. No wonder, it were breeding tanks with a lot of Baby brine
shrimp feeding. But even under
these
conditions, they are in it for 3 - 4 years for sure and without any intensive
cleaning.


How large has the mat to be cut ?

In the width it should be 5 mm broader
than the inside width of the tank. Height should be chosen so that it is 10
mm higher than the waterlevel. Apart from that , the size
results from the calculation


Must the mat go down to
the glassbottom ?

Yes, that's
recommended. Otherwise there might be a small gap between mat and substrate,
where the water
might pass through unfiltered.


What about the mud behind the mat ?

One can leave that mud behind the mat.
Usually it does not distract there and it serves, in some sense, as a
store for bacteria and buffer.


Does
one safe waterchanges with a Hamburger Mattenfilter ?

No, the mattenfilter does not replace a
waterchange. A real waterchange has still to be done.


[B]So
what's the point with the HMF ?

[/B]It
makes a substantially very stable biological environment in the aquarium. This
is due to its true and large mass
of filtermud. In
canisterfilters there is less and in addition, the aquarium (plants,
substrate..) filters itself. In a
MF-aquarium, one can quite
possibly suck off the substrate or do some large scale water changes. The MF
will
buffer that. The MF-aquaria are far more resistant
against influences from outside. They are biologically stable.
[B]

[B]Canisterfilters do work, why then a Mattenfilter ?

[/B][/B]No one says that aquaria
with canisterfilters have to be adapted at once. But for a new installation one
should
think about a filterchange. Usually, aquaria with a
canisterfilter do work as a large part of the filterwork takes
place in the aquarium and not in the canister. Experiments
showed that in average canisterfiltered aquaria, one
could
remove the filter wool and nothing changed in the aquarium. That means that the
filter does not help much,
it only provides
watercirculation.[B][B]


[B]Does it make sense to use
a circulation pump filter as a pump for a internal MF ?

[/B][/B][/B]Principally yes. But one should bear in
mind that, because of frictional resistance inside, the net pump power
cannot be compared any longer to the given pump power. It is
reduced. This should be checked when doing the
mathematical
dimensioning.
For a repetition: One assumes a twofold
circulation of the tank per hour. That means that the pump power per hour must
be twice as high as the tank volume (with or without substrate, does not
matter). Thereby the waterflow in the mat should be between 5 - 10 cm /minute.
If the Eheim pump shows 620 ltr /h and the tank has a volume of 300 ltr/h then
it might get rather on the short side of 2x per hour. This is because the real
pump power is only 50 â₉€œ 75 % due to the filling material and its density
in the canister.

[B][B][B]

[B]Are
iron fluctuations in the mat preventable or dangerous ?

[/B][/B][/B][/B]No, completely normal. The iron which
comes from fertilizers
into the tank is held stable by chelators. These
chelators
do not work forever, the the iron precipitates and gets into the substrate or
into the filter. However, some traces come back from there, so that a certain
iron supply from the filtermud is given.
[B][B][B][B]


[B]Mattenfilter and mould film

[/B][/B][/B][/B][/B]A mould film consists of bacteria living on the surface. They
are of no importance in small numbers. So if a
mould film
appears, that is no reason for panic. A mould film has nothing to do with
filtration, both are principally independent matters. A mould film behind the
mat is absolutely not critical. I would not do anything against it. At the
aquarium side, a mould film can be prevented or fought against by a handy
placement of the pump outlet pipe. Otherwise the usual operations: periodical
removement with blotting paper or a litre mug.
[B][B][B][B][B]

[B]Mattenfilter and sand as substrate

[/B][/B][/B][/B][/B][/B]Of course, wheter gravel, sand or no substrate at all like in
breeding tanks, a mattenfilter will always work. This is one of the essential
points of a MF. It alone shall, must and will be sufficient to hold all the
microbiology for the aquarium. That's the job of a Mattenfilter.
[B][B][B][B][B][B]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

German language original URL: [URL="http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/FAQ.htm"][COLOR=#003366]http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/FAQ.htm[/COLOR][/URL]

Date 24-11-03

Author :Olaf Deters

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[/B][/B][/B][/B][/B][/B]
More links:

ShrimpNow !!! - Hamburg Mattenfilter (HMF)
Hamburger Mattenfilter HMF
http://www.janrigter.nl/mattenfilter/

 

Here you go: EMW South Africa - Contact information

I only know of the guy in Joburg I'm afraid, though I'm certain there are people in Cape Town who can get it. @f-fish said @Altum had some, so that might be an idea.

 

@PsyXe -thanks a lot, really appreciated.

 

This is something worth experimenting with

 

@Firefly_SA
Great article and new information that I have learned now from.

I got some Shrimp about two months ago from @francoisve and one is carrying eggs..
Will now implement at his technique to a 2 ft tank.
Thank you for sharing!

 

Anybody got some open cell foam, I need a few pieces for my guppy breeding tank?

 

I am currently using the above filter on a few of my tanks, and i find it to be very effective. The only problem I encounter is when the water level drops and the airlift struggles abit. But after a water change the cloudy water clears up rapidly.

 

@fishcrazy where did you get the foam in Durban?

 

picts of my HMF filter

Hello guys, picts attached of the HMF running at my place

 

Looks good man. Do you get a little bit of seepage on teh sides of the sponge between the sponge and the glass wall of the tank, or is it sealed there? And where did you get the foam sheet from?

 

Hi RoGe, I paid R160 for sheet size 320 x 330 x 50mm ,not easy yo get a hold of so i bought 6 in one go, i have 2 available if you int.

 

This was a quick installation, but i have plans to streamline and improve the system, I have used airlifts as it is more economical for me to use against powerheads in each tank, i have 2 4foot tanks split into 3 and 4 compartments

 

Hey @fishcrazy, your airlifts look DIY - are they? If so is there any chance that you can give us a quick tutorial on how you made them? Or just some photos of how they're put together? Pretty please and thank you :adore: