Cleaning Media

[Behold]

How much bactiera is lost when rinsing your media (In tank water obviously)

Should you only clean one section at a time?

 

[mark.w.jones]

How much bactiera is lost when rinsing your media (In tank water obviously)

Should you only clean one section at a time?

Very little if any are lost in the cleaning process. Certainly not enough to prevent them re growing extremely quickly. As long as you are only squeezing out and rinsing in tank water it's fine. There is no harm in having your filter off for up to an hour whilst you remove all your media, sponges, floss, wool, ceramic media etc. to squeeze out and rinse. Don't over clean your media though as all that brown sludge is your bacteria at work. Get rid of too much and you may do more arm than good. A healthy filter should look messy IMO.

 

[Behold]

How much bactiera is lost when rinsing your media (In tank water obviously)

Should you only clean one section at a time?

Very little if any are lost in the cleaning process. Certainly not enough to prevent them re growing extremely quickly. As long as you are only squeezing out and rinsing in tank water it's fine. There is no harm in having your filter off for up to an hour whilst you remove all your media, sponges, floss, wool, ceramic media etc. to squeeze out and rinse. Don't over clean your media though as all that brown sludge is your bacteria at work. Get rid of too much and you may do more arm than good. A healthy filter should look messy IMO.

Ta for that. i was wondering just incase....

 

[GRJ]

I only swish mine in old tank water taken out during a water change if it isnt really mucky. Just place it in the bucket and swish it around, i dont even squeeze it unless its full of gunk. The ceramic discs i just gently shake in the water to loosen any debris. As the previous post said, a healthy filter should look messy!

 

[Matty P]

I would normally just clean half of the media at once just to be on the safe side.

 

[Behold]

I would normally just clean half of the media at once just to be on the safe side.

I was thinking of that.

 

[vinylman]

Also, use the media until it's almost falling apart. The manufacturers would LOVE you to buy new sponges every month.

 

[pandacichlid]

Also, use the media until it's almost falling apart. The manufacturers would LOVE you to buy new sponges every month.

yeah my lfs owner says not to get rid of it, unless it's really needed to.
I rinse mine in old tank water, not too much though.