Reusing old media

[Wills]

Hi I’ve sold one of my tanks but want to swap the filter to my Mbuna tank as it’s better and newer.

It’s an oase biomaster 850 and I didn’t realise but I’ve left it full of water for a number of months after I decided to drain the tank and sell it.

I’m going to take apart my fx4 which is being sold and transfer my mature media but the Oase has more baskets and space so I could reuse some of the Oase media.

I’m taking it apart at the moment and the smell was pretty bad I’ve been rinsing the sponges under the tap with the plan to let them dry and then reuse them. That should be ok from a chlorine perspective right?

The bio media in the Oase was seachem matrix do you think that’s ok to use? I’m worried there could be some nasties hidden in it? If I soak it in some tap water would that be ok? Just to reset it?

I was thinking of setting the filter up and filling it with tap water and then adding some dechlorinator and giving it a good swish about then in my mind it’s basically back to factory settings?

Let me know if I’m doing anything stupid!

Wills

 

[GaryE]

THis may have me swimming against the current with many people, but I would clean and rinse it, fire it up to filter something like a bucket for an hour or two, and move it to the tank. I have zero experience of Seachem Matrix, but looking at it as a biologically inert medium, it should rinse out. The filter will have to cycle again, but it should be good.

 

[Wills]

THis may have me swimming against the current with many people, but I would clean and rinse it, fire it up to filter something like a bucket for an hour or two, and move it to the tank. I have zero experience of Seachem Matrix, but looking at it as a biologically inert medium, it should rinse out. The filter will have to cycle again, but it should be good.

I think we in the same ball park - just get it back clean in a way that won’t disrupt the mature media from the other filter.

Good idea on running it on a bucket I hadn’t thought of that and easy enough to do!

 

[Fishfunn]

The bio media in the Oase was seachem matrix do you think that’s ok to use? I’m worried there could be some nasties hidden in it? If I soak it in some tap water would that be ok? Just to reset it?

What I have done in the past with biomedia is put it in water and bring it to a boil for 15 minutes for sterilization. Why take a chance with any bad bacteria? Matrix is designed to harbor anerobic bacteria deep inside it with aerobic bacteria on the top layers. Anerobic bacteria can be deadly.

 

[Wills]

I’ve chickened out and just bought some more haha I’ll explain to the guy that’s taking it what to do but easier for me right now