Cleaning Filter Media?

[Wansui]

Will rinsing my filter media kill the bacteria? I don't really wan't to spend alot of money on a canister filter. Do you think my currnet hang on back filter will be ok as long as I wash the filter media in the removed tank water when I do a water change? 

 

[KieranBoyne]

Will rinsing my filter media kill the bacteria? I don't really wan't to spend alot of money on a canister filter. Do you think my currnet hang on back filter will be ok as long as I wash the filter media in the removed tank water when I do a water change? 

Hi wansui! And yes, rinsing the filter cartridges in tap water will kill pretty much all of the beneficial bacteria that grow on that filter sponge. The way I clean mine is to take it out of the filter after I have a bucket full of tank water, and scrub it in that. It doesn't matter if that water gets dirty because it's going to be cleared out anyway. This way, you clean off any poop and debris off the sponge whilst maintaining all of the benficial bacterial colonies that have grown on the sponge. As for whether the external filter will be ok, It depends on the tank size, how many litres the filter was designed for and the stocking of your tank. and of course it would be ok to rinse it in removed tank water. Sorry if I kind of went around in circles there. That's just me. Sorry.

 

[BerryAttack]

same with the bucket idea, but just have the filter media over the bucket and rinse it while doing a water change.

 

[Wansui]

Ok thanks guys

 

[KieranBoyne]

Any time. If you ever need any more help, just ask.

 

[Ch4rlie]

A tip, would suggest you wash half the filter sponge at a time, cut it in half if needs be, then that way you know your not washing out ALL the bacteria in old tank water. And do alternate halves during after each water change
 
Thats what i do with my HOB filter media, no problem at all doing rings this way.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

No using tap water will not wipe out your bacteria. I probably wont hurt many of them at all. It depends on how much chlorine is in the water and how long you rinse the media for. That said rinsing in tank or dechlored tap will not kill any bacteria which is why we use tank water. Here is a quote from a Ph.D. thesis investigating a tangential issue but it involved chlorine and chloramine and the nitrifying bacteria living in its bio-film.
 

Monochloramine penetrated fully into nitrifying biofilms within 24 hours when fed at a 4:1 Cl2:N ratio, showing a cessation of aerobic activity via DO penetration following application of monochloramine. However, monochloramine penetration did not necessarily equate to a loss in viability, and the presence of excess ammonia in the water system prevented microbial inactivation. Biofilm recovery occurred when disinfection stopped. Monochloramine showed greater penetration compared to chlorine. Monochloramine penetrated into the biofilm surface layer 49 times faster than chlorine within the nitrifying biofilm and 39 times faster in the multi-species biofilm than did chlorine.

from https/etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/ucin1258489526/inline
 
As the above should make clear is that exposing one's media to typical concentration of chlorine in drinking water just isn't fast enough to make a difference when talking about  fe minute exposure. Moreover, chloramine won't kill any bacteria, the worst it can do is put them to sleep and when the chloramine is gone they wake up and get back to work.
 
But again I will say that, despite the science, it is better to be safe than sorry. But I knew a major breeder in the Chicago area who told me years back that he never used dechlor.

 

[Wansui]

A tip, would suggest you wash half the filter sponge at a time, cut it in half if needs be, then that way you know your not washing out ALL the bacteria in old tank water. And do alternate halves during after each water change
 
Thats what i do with my HOB filter media, no problem at all doing rings this way.

Great idea, thanks for the tip  

 

[Alasse]

I rinse all my media in tap water, been doing it for years. Not caused a cycle or even a mini cycle yet
 
But yep, err on the side of caution if thats what you wish to do

 

[Blubble37]

I'd say that rinsing the sponges in tank water aswell as the ceramics if any would be a good idea, but any floss pads can be rinsed in tap water, otherwise they dont tend to clean all too well, they need the mains water pressure to force the dirt out of the tiny pores

 

[KieranBoyne]

Yeah I agree about the floss pads.

 

[frapadoodle]

I rinse mine in a bucket of 'used' tank water.
That lovely brown gunk then waters my plants. It's fantastic fertilizer.
Another thing, you really don't need to clean the filter every waterchange. I tend to do mine once a month or so, when the flow drops off.

 

[Blubble37]

I rinse mine in a bucket of 'used' tank water.
That lovely brown gunk then waters my plants. It's fantastic fertilizer.
Another thing, you really don't need to clean the filter every waterchange. I tend to do mine once a month or so, when the flow drops off.

AMEN
 
If it ain't dirty, don't clean it

 

[TwoTankAmin]

 
I'd say that rinsing the sponges in tank water aswell as the ceramics if any would be a good idea, but any floss pads can be rinsed in tap water, otherwise they dont tend to clean all too well, they need the mains water pressure to force the dirt out of the tiny pores

 
And this is yet one more reason why floss is such a bad home for bacteria. That water pressure basically will remove most, it not all of any bacteria, that might be in the floss. But if you need to "pressure" wash any media, the odds are it doesn't hold much or any bacteria to begin with.
 
And I have been rinsing bio-media weekly on tanks for years. I don't wait for media to clog to the point of slowing flow to clean it. I prefer to prevent it from building up. I should say I use a lot of sponges and they are easy to rinse. My canisters only get cleaned about twice a year. So how often you rinse your bio-media depends on what you use and how you load your filter and how many filters you may put on a tank. If you always put good mech filtration before the bio-media, it goes a real long way to prevent it from clogging. Lastly, fish load counts in terms of maintenance routines. Lightly stocked tanks need less than heavily stocked tanks.

 

[Linear]

Cleaning media can really elongate their lives!
 
What i tend to do is siphon a few litres of water out, take the media cages out and rinse them in it, put them back and simply add some more conditioned water!