What If I Accidentally Put A Bit Too Much First Bites Fish Food In - F

[Deleted member 107737]

Hi All,
 
If i accidentally put a bit too much of a pinch of fish food in my tank, will the filter suck the uneaten food and get a ammonia spike??
 
 
Could i take this filter media and squeeze it in a bucket of dechlorinated water to rinse out the fish food??
 
 
Thanks,
 
Dave

 

[MBOU]

1- jug of water from the tank... quick squeeze of the filter sponge to get rid of worst... but not too much!!
2- 50% water change + dechlorinator etc
3- if you use biological/bacterial supplement... follow course fir new tank/do a 2-3 day course... full dose day 1 and half dose days 2 and 3...

 

[taffia1]

Hi dave, don't worry too much about it just clean up what you can. When rinsing your filter use water you take out of your tank. Your filter media will have bacteria that combats ammonia And nitrites. Using dechlorinated water would kill off the bacteria which is more likely to cause an ammonia spike.

 

[davec1960]

Using dechlorinated water would kill off the bacteria which is more likely to cause an ammonia spike.

I thought that dechlorinated water wouldn't but water straight from the tap could.
Every time anyone one carries out a water change they are adding a large quantity of dechlorinated water which will then pass through the filter.
Interested to know if the tank water has matured in some way to become less harmful to bacteria than dechlorinated water.

 

[DreamertK]

Tank water "matures" with NO2 - nitrates, which in large quantities can kill fish and in smaller quantities can kill inverts. Dechlorinated means that the chlorine is chemically attached to another particle and can no longer freely float around and kill cause havoc by harming fish and bacteria. Tap water contains these free floating chlorines that would kill your good bacteria, that's why its always necessary to dechlorinate the water with PRIME or other agents. It's necessary to change the tank water to remove NO2 from the tank so that it doesn't build up, with water that doesn't have any NO2 and doesn't have any chlorine either, that's where the dechlorinated water comes in.
 
It's also possible to kill the bacteria by using dechlorinated water thats extremely hot or cold, drying out the filter media, using tap water, or not feeding the bacteria NH3 for a significant amount of time.

 

[David J]

Using dechlorinated water would kill off the bacteria which is more likely to cause an ammonia spike.

I thought that dechlorinated water wouldn't but water straight from the tap could.
Every time anyone one carries out a water change they are adding a large quantity of dechlorinated water which will then pass through the filter.
Interested to know if the tank water has matured in some way to become less harmful to bacteria than dechlorinated water.

Just to be clear, dechlorinated water is good, chlorinated water is bad. Don't let chlorine touch anything in your tank. Chlorine will kill your good bacteria.