Have I Ruined My Mature Filter?

[Lazerus]

Hi all,

I was doing a weekly water change and general clean up this morning.

Recently my filter is not working to its full potential, in fact it was quite blocked, so I decided to have a look at it....having never touched it since my start up back in June.

The sponge was caked with goo and stuff, so I decided to give rub off some of the surface stuff, and at the end I gave it a squeeze into my bucket of water (which I'd just removed from the tank)....loads of debris and stuff came out and the sponge looked better.

So I put it back into my filter holder and my tank is back running again.

Now I'm wondering have I totally ruined my good bacteria? Will the tank start to cycle again?

Have I blown it by doing this...how do other people clean their filter sponges? Worried now.

 

[flash22]

As long as you cleaned it out in old tank water you should be fine (normal tap water will the kill bacteria). This is the usual way to clean fillters

edit. with the juwel filter I use to clean the filters out in old tank water change the white top floss ever 2 weeks and the carbon ever 2-3 months

 

[LauraFrog]

This is how I clean my tanks as well, but I use filter floss instead of sponges so I actually throw out about a third of it every time I clean the filter (about once a month). I have never lost the cycle or set the tank spiking. The safest way to avoid a spike is not to rely solely on sponges to grow your bacteria. Chuck a few ceramic rings in the filter as well and you should be fine.

 

[Nick16]

you will be fine m8. you might want to clean the sponges more often, but not all at once

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no you got it spot on, general guide is whenever the flow rate is dropping clean out half the tanks media in this way, a week or so later clean the other half in this way. then leave it be until the flow rate drops again

 

[Lazerus]

Hi again...Thanks!

Ok I'm a little relieved, yes, I cleaned it into the old tank water that I took out of the tank.

But the only thing is I didn't clean out half the sponge, I squeezed the whole sponge so that it went a lighter shade of green.

I'm worried I squeezed too much of the good stuff out....

What I might to do is a water test tomorrow morning just to monitor it just in case.

I've never seen the ceramic rings...I must have look out for those so.

Thanks again....phew!

 

[Nick16]

hang on, we are not talking about squezzing half a sponge m8. say you have 4 sets of media (sponges) in youre filter. clean 2 and then as MW said clean the other 2 the next week and then leave it. this way you are not decimating all of the bacteria and leaving 2 sponges allows it to grow back faster!.

 

[Lazerus]

I know what you mean, its just my filter only has one sponge you see...its Fluval plus 1... It can only hold one little sponge in the holder.

 

[Nick16]

oh ok. i have one of them on my fry tank, a 38ltr. when my new filter has matured i will replace it with a 2+

 

[waterdrop]

Doesn't matter if you only have one sponge. The bacteria we care about clings very, very tightly to the media surfaces. Squeezing the debris out will not rinse these bacteria off, they will still be clinging on to the sponge fibers, like a stain.

When a filter is very young, not really mature, then the results you are getting may be partly dependent on the bacteria that is clinging to the debris (in addition to that clinging to the sponge fibers) and so you may indeed get a mini-cycle from a heavy "squeeze-out", but it doesn't take long for your colony to be larger and tougher than that, I'd say.

Most of us beginners are overly worried about this squeeze-out, I believe. I've read comments by experienced keepers who laugh and say they "wring the sponge out good and hard." I'd probably choose to be more gentle in your case (as you were, no doubt) and I'd certainly be doing my ammonia and nitrite tests, but I'd not worry too much about it at all.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Lazerus]

Ok...Thanks

Yes, It was only a gentle squeeze I gave....like, I didn't wring the life out of it or anything!! Well, I'll definately be doing my tests daily then over the next few days...just in case.

I was hoping to add two more cardinals to the tank today, I guess thats knocked that on the head.

Anyway, for future maintenance, I wonder would there be any benefit in trying to fit a second sponge into my filter? It might fit with a push.

So that when this issue arises I can squeeze out one and keep the other intact...I could alternate them this way...provided the second sponge fits of course.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cut the sponge you have in half, then you can just clean or replace half of it if needs be

 

[Lazerus]

Ha,ha,ha...yes, that would be the more sensible option alright....thanks!!!

Grand so.....

Anyway, on the upside, my tank water is lovely and clear and the water flow is back to the way it should be.

Thanks!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

excellent

 

[Gruffle]

Fitting a second sponge won't hurt, when I get a new internal filter I generally squeeze as much old media into it from the filter that it is replacing as possible.

I have had a couple of the smaller Fluval models and its easy enough to do with the cartridge design they use.