You already have bio media, it's the little package contained in netting on the top, Aqua Clear calls it Bio Max. Up until about 3 years ago Aqua Clear filters came with the sponge & carbon only, the sponge provided mechanical filtration as well as bio filtration.
You could, in your media setup, clean the sponge with tap water, and the bio media in tank or other dechlorinated water. Your sponge will contain a good percentage of nitrifying bacteria, in a recently cycled tank I would clean both in tank or other dechlorinated water. The original design used the sponge as a dual purpose media, in a recently cycled tank the colony of nitrifying bacteria will be rather fragile.
You can run it without the carbon, it does only remove any chemicals for a few days. This leaves you 1/3 more room, many people running AC's will add a second sponge, or some filter floss to polish the water a bit.
To keep it from siphoning back into the tank remove the lift tube, the filter will empty through the output, then unplug it. Running it dry won't hurt it for a few seconds, if it runs dry for several minutes the motor has a thermal shutoff.
It theory you could clean the mechanical media with a good blast of tap water. In theory, once your tank is more mature with a good healthy colony of nitrifying bacteria you could clean all your media this way, the additives in water are enough to kill a relatively small amount of bacteria, not the amount found in mature bio media. A quick blast with tap water to knock the grunge out of your bio media is not going to cause a major problem, letting it soak in a bucket of tap water may.
You could, in your media setup, clean the sponge with tap water, and the bio media in tank or other dechlorinated water. Your sponge will contain a good percentage of nitrifying bacteria, in a recently cycled tank I would clean both in tank or other dechlorinated water. The original design used the sponge as a dual purpose media, in a recently cycled tank the colony of nitrifying bacteria will be rather fragile.
You can run it without the carbon, it does only remove any chemicals for a few days. This leaves you 1/3 more room, many people running AC's will add a second sponge, or some filter floss to polish the water a bit.
To keep it from siphoning back into the tank remove the lift tube, the filter will empty through the output, then unplug it. Running it dry won't hurt it for a few seconds, if it runs dry for several minutes the motor has a thermal shutoff.
It theory you could clean the mechanical media with a good blast of tap water. In theory, once your tank is more mature with a good healthy colony of nitrifying bacteria you could clean all your media this way, the additives in water are enough to kill a relatively small amount of bacteria, not the amount found in mature bio media. A quick blast with tap water to knock the grunge out of your bio media is not going to cause a major problem, letting it soak in a bucket of tap water may.
I will however point out I'm not formiliar with the aquaclear filters at this point, so aquaclear users, feel free to shoot my idea down in flames 
XD
