Angels Plus

Air Driven Sponge Filters for Aquariums

Innovation:  We were the first company to offer the weighted cube filter back in 1987. We were first to use reticulated foam for our sponge filters (now the industry standard) and we have now come up with the Mag Filter - which is another step forward in sponge filter technology. We offered the best in 1987 and we're still making the finest reticulated foam filters today.

Slate-bottom	5" Mag Sponge Filter	Mag Filter Close-Up
PPI Sizes	Some of our Stock Sizes

PPI stands for the number of pores per linear inch. 15 PPI is our largest pore filter. It works great in tanks that have a lot of fish waste. 20 PPI is great for all-around use and 40 PPI is designed for small fry. The pore size is small enough that you will not risk a new-born swimming into a pore and getting stuck. The bio-sponge is a non-reticulated foam that has tremendous surface area, but flow-through is not as good as the reticulated sponges, so it is better for small fish and tanks with very little waste.

3" filter has 27 cubic inches of filter volume
4" filter has 64 cubic inches of filter volume
5" filter has 125 cubic inches of filter volume

Enter quantity desired in each box below

Filter Type	Slate-bottom Filter	Mag Filter
Blue  15 PPI	4"  $4.75 10 or more $4.25 ea 4" Active $8.00 5 or more $7.75 ea 5"  $9.25 10 or more $8.75 ea	4"  $4.75 10 or more $4.25 ea 5"  $9.25 10 or more $8.75 ea
Black 20 PPI	4"  $4.75 10 or more $4.25 ea 4" Active $8.00 5 or more $7.75 ea 5"  $9.25 10 or more $8.75 ea	4"  $4.75 10 or more $4.25 ea 4" Active $8.00 5 or more $7.75 ea 5"  9.25 10 or more $8.75 ea
Black 40 PPI	3"  $2.75     (on 4" slate) 10 or more $2.60 ea 4"  $4.75 10 or more $4.25 ea	3" $2.50     (fry tanks) 10 or more $2.35 ea
Black Bio	4"  $4.00 10 or more $3.75 ea 4" Active $7.50 5 or more $7.25 ea

20 PPI Foam Media	Filter Slate Base	Lift Tube
	Replacement Magnet Pair

Assembly Instructions for Mag Sponge Filters,  Click here

For Custom Sizes and larger Foam Filters,  Click here

Angels Plus Sponge Filters are the most efficient filters on the market. They are carefully designed for optimum flow rate and the ability to grow dense nitrifying bacteria colonies. Keep in mind that flow rate can be too fast for a sponge filter and a faster flow does not necessarily mean a better filter. All foam material is not created equal. Some contain biocides (poisons). Many have fire retardants on them. Others are simply made from a material that does not promote nitrifying bacteria growth. They may not kill your fish, but the beneficial bacteria, will not grow properly. Our foam is chosen for its suitability as a medium for nitrifying bacteria. We have tested dozens of materials before choosing these. We've used them in our own hatcheries for almost 30 years. They have proven to be the best for raising our valuable fish. We have sold over 125,000 of them since 1989 when we first started offering them to the public.

Weighted vs Mag Sponge Filters:

Our standard filters come with a slate base. Real slate is expensive, but it is very dense and heavy, along with being fish-safe. This weight keeps them on the tank bottom but allows you to easily slide them around. This makes real slate ideal for weighted filters.  Our Mag Filters are designed to attach to a tank side wall through the use of powerful magnets. Although you can easily slide them, they cannot be put into the middle of the tank floor without a modification to the lift tube. The Mag Filters rinse more easily since the base does not get in the way. They are also cheaper to ship.  Some will prefer one design over the other, but it has little to do with filter efficiency, which is virtually identical between the two. 

Beware of filters using tile as a base. Tile is covered by a glaze which usually contains heavy metals. When this glaze dissolves in your water (which it surely will over time), it can be toxic to your fish.  Our filters also have an interior chamber that improves flow and function, which is missing on most other sponge filters. It's critical for optimum performance.  We use a clear lift tube, which is not only far more durable than needed, but it allows you to see into the tube to be sure nothing is clogging it and no fish have gone into it. Those using perforated lift tubes do not work nearly as well.  The perforations can clog and they do not draw equally from all pores in the sponge - creating dead spots.

The 15-40 PPI filters are designed to decrease clogging and make cleaning easier. They are made from a waterproof reticulated polyether foam with an  open-pore design. This is the same material as the Poret brand of foam.  When compared to a typical polyurethane foam,  our reticulated foams have much greater flow-through, are more durable, have a greater capacity for holding waste, and are not as easily collapsible. There are several grades on the market and we carry the highest grade available that is suitable for filtration. It shouldn't come as a surprise that many companies choose the cheapest grade available. In our hatcheries, we are still using some of our original reticulated filters that are over 20 years old and they are still performing like new.  You cannot buy a better filter foam product anywhere, at any price.

Our Bio-Sponge Filter is polyurethane non-reticulated foam that has tremendous surface area. It is most often used on tanks that have very small fry in them. This filter is not best for tanks with a lot of fish waste because it clogs relatively easily.  Typically any fry older than a week will be fine with our 15 and 20 PPI Filters. The small pore material of the Bio-Sponge will start to break down after about 3-4 years in the water, and needs to be replaced at that time for the filter to work at its best. The replacement sponges can easily be attached with silicone to the existing base to renew the filter.

The Active Filters are taken from our tanks and contain a good colony of nitrifying bacteria and other beneficial micro organisms. They provide an instant-cycle.  We put them in our tanks for 4-6 weeks, with the sole purpose of providing them to customers. This is a far superior way of starting a new tank, when compared to other bacteria starters. We estimate that our active filters work 100 times better than the next best cycling product on the market. Our tanks do contain snails and they are a possible passenger on these filters, even though we don't keep the snails in the tanks containing the filters for sale. Don't order them if you don't want the possibility of small snails emerging from them in your tanks.

20 PPI Foam Bio-Media:  This product is the excess media from our  filter manufacturing process. We sell it below cost, which is a great deal for those who can use it. It's ideal for placing in canister filters, outside power filter boxes, box filters, and bio towers. It is very porous with tons of surface area, creating an idea media for culturing beneficial nitrifying bacteria. Each package contains a minimum of 230 cubic inches of Foam Bio-Media (this amount fills a 1 gallon jar).

To learn more about aquarium filtration click here!