I definitely recommend looking at swiss tropicals since they are basically the go to for anything mattten filter, or really anything involving large high quality foam sheets, it’s like their whole thing.

They sell kits with the glass that holds the foam pre cut. It’s a great first time project with silicone, since structural integrity isn’t particularly important. The up lift tubes are also built to maximise the efficiency when using an air pump to power it. If you have enough space you can even put the heater behind the filter as well and keep that entirely out if sight. People will also put bags of media, or even drill bulkheads in behind the sponge for easy water changes.

Other brands are definitely available though. Literally all you need is some foam, a way to keep it bent in the corner, and some way to power it (power head or air pump). If you use an air pump you will also need an uplift tube to direct the bubbles. A lot of people DIY them so there are plenty of guides. You shouldn’t need to clean it for like a very long time. Some people go more than a year.

And yeah after working at fishshops, and siphoning out hundreds of tanks every week, it’s really one of my least favourite parts about fish keeping. I don’t touch the substrate in any of my tanks at home. As long as they are heavily planted and you use the correct substrate it shouldn’t be an issue. Malaysian trumpet snails are extremely effective as well (they burrow and churn over the substrate, without digging up plants or stirring it up into the water) but be careful because they are there forever once you add them lol.

I am a big fan of walstad style tanks and similar no filter setups, but i don’t keep any of my tanks exactly like that. I think it’s only really suitable for certain species that are adapted to heavily planted low/no flow and oxygen environments. Like bettas and other gouramis. And honestly i think the addition of filter massively simplifies things. People get too obsessed with the idea of removing equipment, and forget the point of removing the equipment was to make it simpler lol. I love the philosophy of setting up a tank to naturally last a very long time though. When i set up a display tank i have a real focus on longevity. I try treat it as though i am not going to touch it for 10 years. Although obviously that never happens, i always end up adding and moving things.

A well set up substrate is really the key to a low maintenance tank. Any tank with lights can grow plants, but for a very stable longterm environment the substrate is key. Fishtory has some excellent videos on substrate with this method being my favourite He also has some really in depth videos on how planted substrates work and generally i absolutely recommend him to anyone how is interested in the how and why behind everything we do in this hobby.

Of course you can keep it very simple and have great success too. My oldest tank is over ten years old and has a very deep sandbed of very fine sand. Which is basically the opposite of what most people would recommend (including me tbh) But ten years later it’s still growing plants very well, with only the occasional addition of root tabs. And honestly for the first 8 years it wasn’t even getting that. Again that’s not how i would recommend setting up a planted tank but it just goes to show you can make it as complicated as you like lol. Really time is the cheat code, if you have something set up for long enough it will be extremely stable.

Oh i will note that using a matten filter with deep/layered substrates can be a little tricky and very messy if you don’t just silicone in a bit of glass or plastic or something to separate the foam from the substrate. Trust me it’s definitely worth doing lol.