Should I clear (not clean) the filter?

[daisycat]

Per my previous post about an ammonia spike in previously established aquarium. We have found the the nitrites have risen very well over the last couple of days, although ammonia hasn't dropped off as yet.

We moved our tank but did not empty the filter and now (2-3 weeks later) the flow through it is very very slow. Should I clear the filter out to get it running properly again or should I leave it alone whilever there is still some flow through it until the cycle is over? I am concerned that if I disrupt the filter the cycle will restart and it has taken so long to get this far, but I am also concerned that the filter is next to useless at the moment as hardly any water is getting through...

Help please!

 

[cutechic]

You can rinse the filter out with tank water. If you use regular tap water, the bacteria will die.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi daisycat

The bacteria you want are clinging to the fibers of the filter media. It's perfectly alright to clean the gooky stuff off. That's not bacteria, just dirt.

Just swish it around in water you remove from the tank while you are cleaning and doing a water change. It doesn't have to get spotless, just cleaned up a bit. I don't think it would be a good idea to take the filter off and do too much cleaning, but if the water cannot circulate freely, it will not do you much good at all.

The reason you want to clean it in tank water is because that is free from chlorine which has been put into the water to kill bacteria. It's not fussy about which bacteria it kills, so don't use tap water even though it seems like the water pressure from the faucet will clean it more easily. Just swish it around in the old water and rub it a little if necessary.

 

[daisycat]

Thanks all. We went ahead and cleared it in the end and used a bucket of tank water to do the deed. The water is now passing through it again normally. The main problem was the inlet tube had almost completely blocked so clearing that out helped a lot. To be honest we are never particularly fastidious about cleaning the filter (just roughly get the crap off it), which is presumably why we have been lucky in the past even though we didn't know about cycling!!!

Anyway, Nitrites are now high and ammonia has rejoined us on the scale, albeit very very high so it would seem we are making some progress at last.