Filter Cleaning: I Made A Mistake

[Skies]

Well, finally made a gigantic mistake... been two years, was bound to happen sometime. My filter was so gunky, I cleaned the filter housing (which I've never really done), didn't touch the media at all, just the housing, and much to my surprise my tank is now cycling again. I figured if I didn't touch the media that I'd be safe doing this... you live, you learn... SO mad at myself right now. Grrr. I can't believe this...
 
A wise word to beginners... be careful with what you do to your filter, it's delicate.

 

[BrianMcC]

it shouldn't be cycling again unless the bacteria was killed off
did you use tank water when cleaning it?

 

[mbeer21]

I often clean my filter housing out when cleaning my tank - the impeller stops spinning properly if I don't.  So long as your media wasn't cleaned/replaced at the same time it shouldn't have done anything serious to the bacteria. ..

 

[Skies]

it shouldn't be cycling again unless the bacteria was killed off
did you use tank water when cleaning it?

Not for the filter housing, but I always use dirty tank water for my media. I didn't think giving the filter housing a scrub would matter if I didn't touch my media... now my tank is cloudy, and I mean serious low visibility, all I can think of is that it's cycling again. (searching for the testing liquid I need, put it in a box this weekend when I did some cleaning and now the one I need is not there, must have fallen out and into a different box or bag)

 

[Staxx]

i always clean my filter housing.case with normal hot tap water about once every two months. 
 
take out all the media trays put them aside and scrub out all the algae and sand and stuff. been doing this for over a year now and NEVER had a mini cycle or anything.
 
last month i cleaned my whole filter housing/pipes spray bar with normal hot tap water and my tank was fine.

 

[Skies]

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5.0ppm

 

[BrianMcC]

I must admit years ago I have used tap water but then there wasn't half the test kits or knowledge there is now but still can't see why tank has went cloudy unless you've disturbed the media and it has been distributed back in to tank
In my opinion you should be ok it will take a couple of days to clear up!
Normally I rinse media once a week in tank water when cleaning (as they are cichlids and over stocked) while Im cycling my 125 gallon and never had a problem yet!

 

[Skies]

I left my media in a bucket full of dirty tank water when I scrubbed my housing, put everything back together after that, and by the next morning my tank was cloudy... and it's already been a couple days... so idk. see specs in my post above.

 

[Staxx]

it could just be loose "poo" and stuff from the medias been disturbed and its all been pushed in to the tank.
 
happened to me a few times if you leave the filter off for too long all the gunk comes loose. now when i turn my filter back on i have a super fine net i put over the out pipe to catch all the gunk before i reattach it to the spray bar

 

[Skies]

it could just be loose "poo" and stuff from the medias been disturbed and its all been pushed in to the tank.
 
happened to me a few times if you leave the filter off for too long all the gunk comes loose. now when i turn my filter back on i have a super fine net i put over the out pipe to catch all the gunk before i reattach it to the spray bar

No, like I said I cleaned my filter housing out... no gunk.

 

[KirkyArcher]

I don't think you've made a gigantic mistake skies, It's common practice to wash out housings, baskets, hoses, impellers and covers with tap water, as long as the bacteria living environment is protected from chlorines and chloramines there is usually no impact on filters biological performance, and there is debate as to how much damage exposure to untreated water will actually do to a well established colony, could be something as simple as baskets not seated correctly and is being bypassed, or perhaps you've improved flow rate to a point that waste in your substrate is being blown about or could be just as you suggest it's doing a mini cycle which is hardly a disaster. if your ammonia stays below 1 ppm and nitrites stay at zero your fish will be fine, just up the volume of your future water changes

 

[Skies]

I don't think you've made a gigantic mistake skies, It's common practice to wash out housings, baskets, hoses, impellers and covers with tap water, as long as the bacteria living environment is protected from chlorines and chloramines there is usually no impact on filters biological performance, and there is debate as to how much damage exposure to untreated water will actually do to a well established colony, could be something as simple as baskets not seated correctly and is being bypassed, or perhaps you've improved flow rate to a point that waste in your substrate is being blown about or could be just as you suggest it's doing a mini cycle which is hardly a disaster. if your ammonia stays below 1 ppm and nitrites stay at zero your fish will be fine, just up the volume of your future water changes

I have a bare bottom tank, so it's not the substrate. I wonder if it could have been not only cleaning my housing, but removing my gravel on the same day, just racking my brain to try to figure out why this is happening.
 
Thank you for the encouragement, I'll be keeping on top of my water specs and will be doing water changes accordingly, I'll keep you all posted.

 

[KirkyArcher]

 I wonder if it could have been not only cleaning my housing, but removing my gravel on the same day, just racking my brain to try to figure out why this is happening.

 
 
Ah! now I believe we've getting a bit closer to the real source of your problem, even though not part of a primary undergravel filtration system, there's one major load of beneficial bacteria that live amongst sand and gravel, as many have found to their cost when making the change from gravel to sand.or vice versa which obviously involves the total removal of existing "Loaded" substrate

 

[levahe]

Yes Iike kirkyarcher already said, it will be the removal of the gravel that has caused this problem, not cleaning the Filter .

 

[Skies]

Yes Iike kirkyarcher already said, it will be the removal of the gravel that has caused this problem, not cleaning the Filter .

I don't believe it was only removing my gravel, as I have done this more than once in the past without any side effects whatsoever... I feel it was the double whammy of not only removing my gravel. but also scrubbing the housing during the same water change, the two combined was too much. There isn't a whole lot of beneficial bacteria in your gravel (by not a whole lot, I mean, far less than there is in your filter), I think that I removed a lot from the filter housing, but removing the gravel was JUST enough to tip the scales.