# [Wet Thumb Forum]-A New(??) Filtration Concept: The Hamburger Mattenfilter "HMF"



## Jörg

Hi!

I'd like to show you a filtration concept that has gaining popularity in Germany and Europe alike but which I couldn't find on any U.S.- pages yet. The principle is that one uses a foam mat and places it against one of the sidewalls of the tank. A standard aquarium pump is placed in the small gap(2 inches)between glass and mat. 
Thus the water flows through the mat with a far lower speed but over a higher surface area than in conventionally sized canister filters (in which the current(>>5 inches/sec) usually is too high to establish a bacterial fauna. Olaf Deters published the concept of this rather DIY -like filtration concept on his page http://www.deters-ing.de/ and many aquarists "converted" to the HMF ("Hamburger Mattenfilter", to honour the region where it came from) . There is an English-language article explaining the basic principles: 
The mattenfilter in English

which tells you more. Here I would like to show you a way of how to implement this idea in a display-aquarium.:
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Original author: Jörn Carstens
Translation: Jörg Ortmayr
The original author gave written consent to use his article in this forum.

Construction of a cornered Mattenfilter.

The classical Mattenfilter consists of a foam mat which is jammed in between front and back wall of the tank, parallel to the one of the sidewalls. This principle, which is effective and simple, has been used in many breeding tanks, but has one disadvantage in display aquariums: It doesn't look quite well. One had to look at the front side, often coated with mudparticles, quasi directly into the "sewage plant" of the tank. Clever guys invented the cornered filter, usually placed as a quarter of a circle in one of the corners of the backside. Far away from the frontwalls it is placed far more imposingly.

But a new problem arose: How should one attach the mat ? One couldn't simply jam it between the sidewalls any longer because it tried to regain a straight form due to its elasticity. By this, water always leaked through in between mat and sidewall.

Existing ways for fixings

For stabilization small strips of glas were recommended which were siliconed to the sidewalls of the tank. Disadvantage of this methode: Not every aquarist is familiar with a glascutter und has some rests of glas, even the glazier isn't happy about such mini (?) orders. There always remains the feeling that blurry edges of glas remain. An alternative, plexiglas, available at any home depot, isn't always easy to handle either. Especially the constant glueing with the panes makes problems, some leakiness always remains. Strips of glas and plexiglas hold the mat only in one direction, so there is only a hold against the pressure of the bent mat itself. 
Mechanically better it would be to fix the mat on rails. Sometime, somebody got the idea to use a cablechannel for this. 
The cablechannel consists of plastic, is available at any home depot, easily to work with and gives extra fixation to the mat because of its U-like profile.

Cablechannels as holding rails

This idea is discussed here and the simple construction of a cornered Mattenfilter on holding rails made of these cable channels shall be shown on photos. Other technical devices like heater and pump are built in, too.This is shown as an example in a rather small aquarium (50*30*30 cm) . There everything is rather cramped, of course. In all larger tanks the construction is a little bit easier, the special problems of smaller tanks is explained in the text.

Original material

Plastic cable channels are available for little money in the electro department of many home depots, usually in different diameters from 2 metres lenght on. Usually they are used for the installation of cables when they are built in subsequentially, aswell for installations over the plastering or when changes in the cablenetwork have to be done often, as they have a removable cap.
The cablechannels are made of plastics and can be shortened quite easily with an all-purpose saw or a "cutter"-Knife. The cutting shall than be treated with a sharp knife to remove the sharp edge. Afterwards, the channel can be siliconed into the tank.

Material

First on has to determine the size of the mat. You get calculationtools at Olaf's website LINK (see the example section at the end of ths thread) or at JAN RIGHTER's translated site (english )) http://www.janrigter.nl/mattenfilter/
The mattenfilter in English

For the construction of a cornered Mattenfilter one needs:

* a mat in the correct size and thickness

* a cablechannel in the necessary dimensions, length = minimum 2x the height of the tank

* silicone

and these tools:

* a yard-stick
* multi-purpose saw (with fine saw-blade)
* a knife to remove the sharp edge (or an awl)
* a pen to write on glas (e.g. Edding)

And these devices for the aquarium

* a pump with power adapted
* heater
* if desired: CO2-system and co..

First steps:

The cable channel as it is sold can be seen on fig.1. In the middle one sees a small piece consisting of the channel in strict sense, and the removed cap (left side). The cap isn't used any more. The mat can be placed in the U-like profile of the channel.
For this project, we use a mat of 3cm (= 1.2 inches) thickness which is placed in a cable channel of 30 x 15 mm dimensions (= 1.2 x 0.6 inches). For thicker mats, larger cable channels have to be used, of course.

Fig. 1: left side: cablechannel as seen in the shop, middle: channel and cup separated, right side: mat in the channel.









http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-1-600.jpg

After the necessary calculations to find out the sizing of the mat have been done only the radius of the quarter-circle has to be calculated. This radius is the distance from the corner of the aquarium to the middle of the channel. If you forgot how to do these simple calcualations, you will find a tool at Olaf's website. 
The channels are then cut to the correct lenght. The lenght should be the distance from the ground of the tank until to one of the bearing sides. Often there is a small protruding gummed hinge of silicone between sidewalls and ground, and also between sidewalls and bearing strip. So it is practical to shorten the cable channel here a little bit or to leave free a small corner. Shortening usually is simpler. It doesn't matter if the channel is shorter here for a few millimetres, this is were the sand or gravel will be later.

Now that the lenght is set one has to mark the distance to the corner of the tank (this distance = the radius of the quartercircle) in order to silicone the channels in the correct position. I use as a correct measure the middle of the cablechannel. One millimetre more or less doesn't matter, the mat is elastically enough to undo smaller errrors. The cablechannels get silicone on their backside and are glued to the position marked before. The result should look like in fig.2. As long as the silicone is still soft smaller corrections can be done, the silicone "sausage"should really be consistend (?) so that there is no leak between channel and sidewall and that no small fish might get through.

Fig. 2: The cablechannels are glued, mat is still left.








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-2-600.jpg

Those who want can close the contact between cablechannel and sidewall with a seam of silicone, but this is not necessary for its functionability. Now the silicon has to dry, one day should be sufficient. These seams don't have to bear that much load like the walls of the aquarium themselves.

Adding technical devices

Now comes the mounting of the devices. In our example, we want to install a pump and a heater. Especially in smaller tanks there is relatively little place left behind the mat, it is rather narrow. Then it pays to invest some time to find the correct pump or correct heater (speaking of dimensions). For tanks larger than 100 litres (> 25 G) the place behind the mat usually is large enough to fit in any standard size pumps and heaters.

Fig. 3: Mounting of technical accessories








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-3-600.jpg

For the heater, there are usually only a few ways to place it. In these small tanks, one should try to position it not below the bearing sides so that the cable can go freely upward and one can adjust temperature, if necessary. So the small pump had to be placed below the bearing side. In this example the pump was mounted rather high above. When doing a water change, it will run dry (which can be accepted for a few minutes) or has to be stopped. On the other side, it can easily distribute the warm and rising water from the heater. If one installed the pump more below, as it is assigned sometimes, one would have to build a tube from the pump-outlet upwards, including two 90°-bends. There is no place for that here and it needs additional material.
Here a small garden hose is set upon the pump (it doesn't have to be a yellow rest of a garden hose like in the picture)

Fig. 4: Mount the hose on the pump outlet.








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-4-600.jpg

It is recommended to use a hose that is bent a little bit, so that the tank is flown through diagonally. That way one gets the best temperature dispersion. The hose should also be bent a little bit upward, so that one gets a small movement of the water surface. . One has to find out during operations wich is the best position. Now you make a crosslike cut into the mat where the hose is passed through. Then, or rather simultaneously, the mat is pressed into the two cable channels. 
This looks like in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: et voilà : the mat in front, Finished !








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-5-600.jpg

In these small setups one needs a little bit of skill and patience due to their narrowness, in larger tanks (and therefore larger cornered Mattenfilters) it is easier. If the dimensioning of the mat allows, a place of about 10 cm (= 3.9 inches) should remain, then one can still work rather easily behind the mat. .A view from above shows how little place is left in this "mini" tank.

Fig.6: Little place in a "mini" tank








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-6-600.jpg

In the space behind the mat one can mount the thermometer or the (yeast methode) CO2-outlet below the pump. In larger tanks one usually has more comfort. But one sees how simple a construction for a cornered Mattenfilter can be. As well from the materials needed as for the time. . It is recommended to fill the tank with water and let the pump work for trial. That way smaller incontaminations (like from solvents) are washed out and one can trim the devices, if necessary.

Masking of the filter.

At first sight, now one has a round box in a high intensity blue (depending on mat colour). Not everybody's favourite. But: one sees no longer the suction tube of the filter, heater, etc&#8230; in the tank because everything is hidden behind the mat. 
But, no fear (?), this view will change. The bacteria which settle will turn the colour of the mat to a dark blueblack to brownblack- In the next figure one sees a 5 week old Mattenfilter in a 80 litres ( 21 USG) standard-size-tank without fish but with snails.

Fig.7: discolouration of the mat, total view








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-7-600.jpg

For comparison: in the upper area it is still a little bit lighter, here the waterlevel sinks due to evaporation, here bacteria do not settle, below one sees the darkened mat. During a waterchange, when the mat is dry, one sees that the colouration is from a brown organical film (fig.8)

Fig. 8: Colonization of the mat, detail








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-8-600.jpg

Those who want can place plants onto the mat. All plants wich are offerd to grow on driftwood or stones are acceptable, like javafern, javamoss or Anubias. For sure, others are fit aswell, one can test it out. 
One can attach these plants with a toothpick or sew them with fishing line onto the mat. One can also place the javamoss on the edge of the mat and let it creep below. Fig, 9 shows how this looks in a 2.5 month old tank.

Fig.9 masking of a cornered Mattenfilter with plants, frontalview.








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-9-600.jpg

This filter is in a 60*30*30 cm tank (23.6*11.8*11.8 inches, 14.3 USG) and is overgrown with two javaferns "Windeløv", a small Anubias and javamoss. Fig. 10. shows how it looks from above.

Fig.10.: masking of the cornered Mattenfilter, view from above








http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/EMF-10-600.jpg

On this picture one also sees how the pump was attached: It was simply jammed in between the heater and the sidewall in two blocks of foamed plastic. This has the advantage that its vibrations are no longer at the sidewall, the pump works considerably fainter. If you look well, you see that the formerly blue blocks of foamed plastic have discoloured aswell, so here a bacterial fauna has established, too. With these small colonized blocks one can easily inocculate a new mat, then the bacterial fauna develops much faster than in a "nacked" tank. Especially if sand or gravel and other material in a new tank are brandnew.

Conclusion

One can make a cornered Mattenfilter with only little material and timely efforts. Due to is bowlike construction against waterpressure it gets a high stability. The guide rail of the two cablechannels increases this stability even more. 
A mat is rather fast colonized by bacteria. The mat can be masked by epiphyts like javamoss, javafern or Anubias. So the mat is integrated optically in the aquarium within a few weeks completely. Nearly all technical devices can be hidden behind the mat. Thus, the rather large consumption of space of this variation of the Hamburger Mattenfilter (=HMF) is relativized. It can be integrated without problems in large and small aquariums alike.

End of original article
Original German language article:
URL: http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/Eckmattenfilter.htm
Last updated October 16th, 2003. 
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How to use Olaf Deters calculations tools. Until now, there are no translations I know of where one can simply enter his/her aquarium data and one gets results. So here is a step-by-step-process of how to use this site even if you don't speak german:

First: We calculate in litres and centimetres. Please convert - if necessary - your tank volume from gallons to litres. That's easy: 1 gallon=4,546 litres, 1 U.S.gallon = 3.78 litres
Write down the volume of your tank in litres .

Second: Go to 
http://www.deters-ing.de/Berechnungen/Berechnungen.htm#Mattengroesse

for Q; enter the volume of your tank in litres
n is the number of times the tank should the circulated per hour. Leave it at "2"
V is the flow of the water through the mat, it should be between 5 and 10 cm/minute . Leave it at 7.5
Press enter . What you will get is an area in squarecentimetres, to convert into squareinches: multiply with 0.155

Example: you have a 80 US-Gallons tank : that makes 80*3,78= 302,4 litres
Enter Q= 302.4 (mind the . )
Leave n = 2 and V = 7.5 
Press enter, result is 1344 squarecentimeters
Multiply 1344 with 0,155 = 208,32 squareinches. This is the size your filtermat has to be.

Third step: Abolish those crazy units ;-)

If you want to find out if one of your existing pumps can be used for this method go to

http://www.deters-ing.de/Berechnungen/Berechnungen.htm#Pumpe

For Volumen: enter again the volume of your tank in litres. 
For n (the number the tank should be cycled per hour ) set "2 " again

Press =

What you will get is a simple calculation V*n = Q and tells you the performance your pump should have. In our example with a 80 gallons tank (=302 litres) it is 604 litres per hour. If you now click on "suche" (=Search) you will get a list of pumps that have this size. If you click the two buttons to the left you can go up and down in this list.

Defining the radius of the bent mat (for the cornered Mattenfilter)
calculating the bent mat

Höhe Aqua
(cm)	Pumpe
(ltr/h)	v
(cm/Min.)
Höhe Aqua.=height aqu. in cm.To convert from inches multiply with 2,54
Pumpe (ltr/h)= the performance of the pump in litres per hour. If you only know the performance in gallons per hour: divide again by 4,546 (U.K.) or 3,785 (US), resp.
V in cm/minute is the speed of waterflow through the mat. Should be between 5 and 10. So leave it at 7.5

What you will get as result "e" is the radius of your mat . 
Example 
Our 80 gallons (US) tank gave us in the previous example the need for a pump of about 604 litres per hour (= 159.6 gallons/hr)
The height of the tank is 20 inches. That makes 50,8 cm (enter in "Höhe")
For "Pumpe (ltr/h)" enter 604
V remains at 7.5
. e = 16 cm that makes 6,3 inches

The distance from the corner of the tank to the middle of the cablechannel should be 6,3 inches&#8230;

I would like to thank Olaf Deters and Jörn Carstens for their consent to use their articles.

Bye, Jörg









[This message was edited by Jörg on Mon February 16 2004 at 04:25 AM.]


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## PPulcher

Jörg, thank you _very_ much for the great article on how to make a Hamburg mattenfilter. I've heard about these for some time now, and your article illustrates the concept perfectly. I've been wanting to try something similar in small killie tanks, using an airlift tube instead of a powerhead.

Well done!

Cheers,

Andrew


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## Neal

Jörg,
This is a very interesting article, thank you for posting it. I couldn't find a description of the type of foam that should be used. Is something like this blue foam appropriate: blue bonded foam pad or does it need to be stiffer like this: pre-filter foam


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## Jörg

Hi Neal !

The bluefoam pad looks too soft in my eyes, I doubt wheter it would stand the waterpressure, I would choose the prefilter blocks, although they are rather small (from 9 to 13") and expensive. The standard foam mat here is a blue polyurethane (=PUR) mat of 50x50x5cm in fine, medium and course qualtity (holes per squareinches),sold in petshops for about €15(19 US-$). I bought mine in a DIY-market (like Homedepot ?) were it was offered as padding/upholstery material for chairs(a rather unorthodox source ;-) ).You have to check that it is permeable to air by trying to breath through it(>open!< cell foam).

foam in fine quality:








The diameter of the coin is 1cm
http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/Matte_fein-neu.jpg
this might be inappropriate when you have a very high load of debris or sand, but has the largest surface
foam in coarse quality








Here it takes longer until bacteria settle.
a comparison of an old (alt) and new (neue) foam









a used mat in fine quality:









I am working on the translated Mattenfilter-FAQ and am going to publish it ASAP.

@ Andrew: As you can see at Jan Rigters site an airlift tube works well. Seems to be the easiest solution for a group of AQs.

bye, Jörg

[This message was edited by Jörg on Tue February 17 2004 at 05:16 AM.]


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## Tenor1

Guten Tag Jorg,

What a great update on this filtration method. They were started in Germany, I think, about 45 years ago. We had friends in Hamburg that tried them but they were very ugly in the tank as the foam went across the entire back. My mother didn't like the idea of keeping the dirty form inside of the tank thus we kept the Eheim canister. 

These filters have a place in the hobby and thanks for the fantastic update. I am from Switzerland but can't remember anyone there trying this system back in the 1960's. 

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## imported_timlawyer

I was wondering if this could be modified to use as a CO2 reactor? If the sponge matting were put across the top (but below the water line, of course) and the CO2 line were inserted through the top. The CO2 would bubble in and congregate at the top of the chamber and then as the water pump pushed the water out, the incoming water would mix in with the CO2.

Any thoughts - think it would work?


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## Tenor1

Hi Tim,

The Mini-Vortex uses the priciple you describe except the foam is on the bottom of the chamber. A small powerhead swirls and breaks up the CO2, then it escapes through the foam at the chamber bottom. I have one and it works great.

You can see the Mini at Robert's shop.

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## imported_timlawyer

Hey Tenor1 -
I've seen the ones Robert has - one of my friends has one on a 20g and it works great!! I was just wondering if - because of the increased surface area - this could work on a larger (55g?) tank. I'm planning on a diy in-line reactor - but wondered if this might as good, if not better.


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## Tenor1

The Mini is recommended up to 40 gallons. The efficiency is related to the size of the powerhead and the volume of the mixing chamger versus the foam. But with everything for a plant tank, there are tons of variables such as amount of light, plant ration, etc. You could test it out and let us know the variables of your tank versus the units results. In other words...You'd be our guinea pig, lol. Personally, I prefer to get everything for aquariums larger than recommended, like filters, heaters, etc. I think the unit is too small for your tank.

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## Jörg

Hallo!/(Grüezi Carlos!)

You are right,it is said that the "HMF" has been "invented" by Mr.Baensch, the founder of Tetra. But it didn't spread outside the Hamburg area until Olaf published the idea in the net : If you can read German you will find more (http://www.deters-ing.de/). And it has finally reached Switzerland, too..
















As for the CO2-Injection: why don't you try this?
CO2 into Powerhead
CO2 gets chopped by the motorblades and the small bubbles dissolve fast in the water and do not reach the surface.

-Jörg









I finished the translation of the Mattenfilter-FAQs :

Mattenfilter FAQs

[This message was edited by Jörg on Wed February 18 2004 at 07:58 AM.]


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## Neal

I wonder how the HMF would work in a Walstad planted tank? It seems like a good mix, a low maintenance, slower growth tank mixed with a low (no?) maintenance filter.

I have a 10 in the basement that might have to make the conversion from quarantine to experiment tank.


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## Jörg

I haven't read the Walstad book yet (ordered it by interlending), but in principle: yes, I see no reason why it shouldn't work. You can find HMFs from a 1000G megatank 1000 Gallon tank to 3G kili-breeding pots. And it is a NO maintenance filter





















... (except to suck off the tanksided foam with a hose during waterchanges, but only once in a few months)..Good luck with your experiment tank!
-Jörg








PS: Neal, did you get my private notification ?


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## mm12463

Hi Jörg -

Glad you came over and posted this article. I figured a lot of the people here would be interested. Glad you shared it.

Mike
http://fish.silver-fox.us


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## Jörg

Hallo !

Is there anybody who tried the Mattenfilter concept and who can report about his or her experiences ? 
-Jörg


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## Alex

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Jörg:
> Hallo !
> 
> Is there anybody who tried the Mattenfilter concept and who can report about his or her experiences ?
> -Jörg


I set one up in a 10g fry grow out tank and I can say that as soon as I get rid of the fry I will be tearing it out and just using a regular sponge filter in the future. While it works very well for a biological filter and okay for a mechanical filter cleaning is a mess and it is difficult to move anything around. As for a regular planted tank I think the maintenance problem would be worse, a canister would be probably be better. Just my 2 cents worth. As for the foam, it is what is know as reticulated foam.

Alex


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## Jörg

Hallo ALex!

There is no nedd to clean the mat at all! There a dozens of aquaria with a HMF that work biologically well and do look great, too. What you can do ist to suck of the surface of the mat with a hose once it's surface is covered with too much debris or algae, but you definitely shouldn't do more, Just let the bacteria do their work. What I cannot understand is that the MAttenfilter concept gets more and more popular here but not in the U.S.A. ??








-Jörg


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## cheesehazard

I think I am going to try this on my 40 gallon tank after I find a new home for my 2 oscars.


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## Alex

Jorg,

I tried that and it just didn't work to well. Being that it is a fry tank I do very gentle water changes so that may have worked against it. 

Alex


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## anonapersona

Discus Hans will be importing foam that looks to be the correct type for this filter. 

He posted about it recently at AquaForums.


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## DJ

Over here (the Netherlands) a lot of people have experimented with the 'Hamburger'. It IS a great filter, biologically it is near perfect and it is a low maintenance filter. Over here people are of the opinion that the filter looses it's ugly blue color when it turns dark because of the biological activity. Apart from the biological part it makes the water crystal clear and there's plenty of possibilities to hide equipment.

Unfortunately there are severe drawbacks in planted tanks: once really run-in Hamburgers eat nitrates like there is no tomorrow (anaerobic action). And they do consume trace elements. So for planted tanks the early adapters have abandoned it.

As a reaction people are experimienting with (heavily)planted tanks -typical dutch style tanks- without any filtrating medium. It works great for planted tanks, the plants eat all the stuff and less nutrient dosage is necessary. But please do not try this for an unplanted tank.


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## Jörg

Hi DJ!

Thank you for your contribution! I can confirm that the mat changes its colour, usually within 3 months. Are you really sure that the higher nitrate consume in plant-tanks is only due to the "hamburger"? Isn't it the general higher turnover rate in plant physiology in these tanks with -usually- extra high lightning doses and plenty of CO2? I dont believe that a "hamburger" that runs within the limits (given by O.Deters et al.







of 5- 10 cm /min provides anaerobic conditions within the mat. trace elements: are they really >consumed<, or are they just bound by the "mud [german "schlamm)within the mat. So after a while, the mud would be saturated and give back its load of trace elements to the water. This mud works as a light cation exchanger. If you can read german, you can check out "the" forum for the Mattenfilter,
http://www.aquaristikimdetail.de/
where these question have been discussed quite often and detailed. If you could add your experiences there (also in english), it would be highly appreciated! So there's again a lot to learn from the dutch guys!

tot ziens!
bye

Jörg


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## imported_baj

Jorg,
I am sold on the concept, but I have a couple of questions:
1) What is the maintainence required on the filter pad itself, ie other than cleaning its outside every week, what about replacing the pad, whats the frequency on that?
2) Have you noticed any spikes in Nitrate, Ammonia or phosphates? What will be the break-in period ie time till the filter pad is biologic ally and functionally stabilized?
3) Do you think it is best to place the powerhead as high as possible to get most flow across the filter pad? Is it an issue, or can the powerhead be placed anywhere along the length?

Ich werde fur ihre hilfe dankbar sein. Ignorieren sie bitte irgendwelche fehler in meine sprache.


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## Jörg

Hi baj!

Ich ignoriere jetzt mal die Fehler und Du bitte die meinen








1







Maintenance: That depends a little bit on the structure of the mat, if you choose a fine mat with little pores all sand, mud etc. will easier stay on the outside. But these fine mats take longer till they are settled by bacteria.In my AQ I occasionally pull off some layers of cyanobacteria (bluegreen"algae") that live on the first 10cm below the water surface. That's it. No pulling out. Replacing the pad: there are aquarists who used their mat in different aquariums for more than 10 years, but if you have some fish like loricariidae which graze on wood and also on the mat, this might be reduced drastically. If you want to avoid that, you can opt for an "outside HMF" where the mat is placed in a separate filter aquarium below the display tank.

2







Cycling the tank: when i started with my AQ and the HMF (before i was using Eheim canister filters) i didn't measure NH4 or phosphates. There is a good (german lang.)article about cycling a tank with a HMF (especially about the different stages of microbial activities) that i will link here ASAP.
Generally speaking, you cannot predict when the filter(reactor) will be biologicaly active. The same laws of nature apply to all our aq activities, so there is no difference in starting an AQ with or without a HMF. Wait at least 2 - 3 weeks, start feeding fishfood, measure NO2 and when the spike has occured, add fish. How fast that nitrite pike will appear depends on several factors, like plant consumption on NH4, NO3,temp.,lighting, pH......You can fasten that process if you add some filter "mud" (the brown material inside the mat that can be squeezed out and which is full of bacteria) and kind of innocculate the new mat. I recently started with a new AQ and used a mat from an other AQ, there was no NO2 change at all (zero). 
3.) the flow of water across the mat is constant for the entire area, that sounds weird, but can be proven easily:

http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/durchfluss.htm

the inlet of the pump can be placed anywhere, but i would recommend it not to get too close to the bottom, so that the "mud" from the filter can remain on the ground and work as an additional filtration area.

http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/luftheber.htm
shows you the placing of the pump.

hope that helps. If your german is that good as it seems to be, you could try olaf's pages where the concept is explained quite simply and with illustrations. But I'm also glad to help!

Bye, Jörg


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## imported_baj

Hoi Jorg,
Vielen danke fuer Ihre antwert. All my german is self learnt, the result of working with german colleagues and having an advisor who spent many years in Graz. I just ask them to teach me specific words, the grammar is easy as it is similar to most Indo-European languages.
I will start working on the setup this weekend and I hope to have your help for it. One last thing I wanted to know was, in the pictures, the filter pad was installed before putting the substrate in, so is it true that once the substrate goes in there is none on the filter side, or do we bury a small part of the filter pad in the substrate.


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## Jörg

Servus baj!

If you want to be absolutely on the safe side you can dig in the filter pad on both sides. Some aquarists even place(=silicone) a small, bentcircle of plexiglass on the bottom of the tank around the lower side of the mat, so to prevent the substrate from gliding into the filter area once the pad should ever be taken out of the tank. Will you build a cornered HMF or the standard version ?

Did you read the FAQs?:
Mattenfilter FAQ

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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.

*Where to buy the mat ? *

I bought my foamed plasticmats at specialised dealers. There one can let it have cut, aswell. Meanwhile all
specialised mail order shops feature the mat.

*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.

*So what's the point with the HMF ? *

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.

*Canisterfilters do work, why then a Mattenfilter ? *

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.

*Does it make sense to use a circulation pump filter as a pump for a internal MF ? *

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 â€" 75 % due to the filling material and its density in the canister.

*Are iron fluctuations in the mat preventable or dangerous ? *

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.

*Mattenfilter and mould film*

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.

*Mattenfilter and sand as substrate*

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.
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German language original URL: http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/FAQ.htm

Date 24-11-03

Author :Olaf Deters

http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/FilterBilder.htm

Übrigens: In deutschen Internet-Foren verwendet man eigentlich immer "Du" statt "Sie" als Anrede.also: >Deine< Antwort ;-)

Jörg


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## imported_baj

> quote:
> 
> Übrigens: In deutschen Internet-Foren verwendet man eigentlich immer "Du" statt "Sie" als Anrede.also: >Deine< Antwort ;-)
> 
> Jörg


Ach so! Ich lerne neu things everyday! Isnt Servus latin for comrade? Also, I thought servus was good bye in german, but I have since learned its only in some regions like Bavaria, is das richtig? Got your PM and I will reply back with the answers in a few hours.


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## imported_baj

Here is my Mattenfilter in a 10g tank. I tried to keep the setup as cheap as possible, therefore I didnt want to pay the $15-20 for the cable channels (cablemate) at HD. I instead simply glued sections of the filter material onto the glass (the 10g tank was free, and if these things indeed last several years, then might as well make it semi permanent). I wasnt able to find a single piece of mat large enough for under 7 bucks, therefore I bought a rectangular block which I then cut into 1" thich pieces, the bottom most section is 1&3/8". I came up with the area according to the calculations given in http://www.janrigter.nl/mattenfilter/. If I understand correctly, there are two unknowns in that equation, the Area of the filter and the flow rate, which depends on the area some way. Therefore, I set the flow rate at 10 and then got the area - 396.66cm2. The height of the tank was 26.25 cm same as the filter pad height and the width was then 15cm. However, the calculations are inexact and IMHO dont matter too much, the reason being, to calculate the flow rate we will need the surface area, which depend on the pore size and the thickness of the pad, not just the 2D length and width. Therefore, I think my filter design isnt optimum and the throughput is going to be more than the desired value. Moreover, my powerhead moves 4 times the tank volume per hour, 2 times more than the desired value. But I spent $16 for the whole thing and I am sure it must work somewhat.


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## Jörg

Hi!

Any new experiences with the Mattenfilter ?


.Jörg


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## rhodophyta

*Re: [Wet Thumb Forum]-A New(??) Filtration Concept: The Hamburger Mattenfilter "HMF"*



Jörg said:


> Hallo !
> 
> Is there anybody who tried the Mattenfilter concept and who can report about his or her experiences ?
> -Jörg


I have used this in my most sucessful tanks since the early 70's. There was a woman who wrote about this and also specially designed undergravel filter variations for marine tanks and hybrids between the two filters in articles in the 60's that I was able to read from the local fish club's back "exchange magazines". Some of those articles contained the seeds of the idea of a sponge filter. I believe her club was called the Salt Water Aquarium Society of Hawaii, and the club pub was called Swash! I also talked to aquarists at the public aquarium where I had volunteered, and was told that they had used the mattenfilter or a variation even earlier, when the aquarium opened in the early 50's, and still used a modification of it where it was in a separate tank attached to the system so any maintenance would not "spook" the fish. It is not a far stretch to compare many pond filters with vertical filter pads to a mattenfilter. They are just remotely located away from light and fish to avoid being clogged with algae or debris.

The objections to the appearance of the filter as a background has changed with the introduction of Java moss, Java fern, and other plants that attach without needing their roots in a substrate. Java moss also prevents the substrate clogging. Some big stitches made on the surface of the mat with monofilament fishing line makes it easy to "plant" an instant wall of Java fern and java moss. You can also cut some random shaped holes in the mat, then patch them with larger pieces, to increase surface area while keeping thickness constant and creating a plant ledge on top of each patch.

I've found the mattenfilter is a real boon in freshwater tanks and I was breeding lots of fish in those tanks. I always seemed to win every local fish club's Growth Contests, and was often the first to breed a new fish, especially the African and Central American cichlids. A few years ago I decided to try the new hi tech filters and they have been much more prone to breakdowns and high maintenance. Plus I have not had the same success with fish breeding or even with plants as in the Mattenfilter tanks. I'm looking forward to switching my tanks back to the mattenfilter as I get the chance.


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