washing filter sponge

[tropical_adam]

I beleive i read on here that it was ok to clean the sponged in your filter providing that you wash them in the water from your tank. Am i right in beleiving this?

Also..... Ive never bought any snails but have found two, both of different breeds in my tank. Do they just appear outta nothing, is this a sign that my tank is good, bad etc?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Inchworm]

Hi tropical_adam

Yes, you are right about cleaning the sponge in old tank water. It is tap water that you want to avoid because the chlorine in it will kill the bacteria in the sponge.

Do not overclean the sponge, however, or clean it unnecessarily. If you have an AquaClear filter, clean the sponge when it begins to clog and the basket holding it starts to pop up. To add additional bacteria holding capacity and enhance filtration, fill the chamber above it with filter floss.

Snails sometimes come in with plants. If they are common pond snails they are neither good nor bad. They are cute and if there are only a few of them they won't cause any trouble. If they start to multiply, then you may have a problem.

 

[mrV]

I have always washed them under tap water. If you read articles about HMF, you'll see that good bacteria haven't easy to colonize filter sponge. (The area is small and water is flowing too fast.)

And most of those bacteria live in that silt you're going to wash away anyway. So, why bother to do it so hard, when you can do it easily - washing sponge under the tap?

If the tank is old, there is lot of bacteria (almost everyone) in bottom and on other surface.

But sure, you can wash sponge in tank water too...

 

[tropical_adam]

Thanks for the help guys, I actually have got filter floss type stuff that comes complete with my juwel rekord 70 tank. this is what i was wondering about cleaning. Only because after doing a 50% water change yesterday some scummy stuff started to creep out the top of the filter box

As for the snails i have only seen two so far. And yeah they are quite cute. Also represent the under water world quite well! One is a cone shape in a greyish brown and the other is round with grey and blackish stripes. Any ideas what they are? As for them coming in plants... Not sure on that one cos all my plants are plastic! so unless they live in factory packaging they have magically appeared!

 

[Sinuhe]

Some fairly official sources of information actually tell you to clean your sponge filter in running water. That's what I used to do when I first had a tank some years ago. When I got back into aquariums this fall, I was surprised to hear some people say absolutely not to rinse them in tap water. Now I clean mine in tank water in a bucket. However, in Finland, at least, there is much less chlorine in tap water than in normal American water.

 

[Lithril]

I gotta say that I wouldn't risk it here, the chlorine levels are so high you can often smell it on a running tap, and I'd rather be safe than risk a re-cycle.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I always wash my sponges under the tap, and wash them good.

I also always use double sponges so that I wash one (the first one), and cycle the second down to be washed next time - so I'm effectively washing the sponges every other cleaning.

I have always washed them under tap water. If you read articles about HMF, you'll see that good bacteria haven't easy to colonize filter sponge. (The area is small and water is flowing too fast.)

I don't buy it - I've been using Aquaclear filters with nothing but sponge in them for so long that my experience dictates quite the opposite. I find that these sponges hold much, much more bacteria then given credit for, enough to support a tank on its own. Even my eheims are filled with nothing but foam and filter floss - it makes for easier maintenance and is just as effective.

 

[mrV]

I don't buy it

Quotation of text translated by Jan Rigter from original text (It has been written and studied by Dipl.-Ing. Olaf Deters)

The meaning of flow rate

As discussed above, the nitrogen cycle is a bacterial process. Bacteria change one chemical substance into another. An important prerequisite for this is sufficient time for them to actually do it. It should be clear from this that the time needed for the water to pass through the filter medium is of critical importance. Ideally, the water would stay in the filter long enough for all processes to complete.

But there is another very important factor: the velocity at which the water passes these bacteria. In water clarification plants, it is assumed that bacteria will hold their substrate up to a velocity of 30 cm/minute, or at least be allowed to perform their tasks unhindered. If this velocity increases to higher levels, so does the tendency of the bacteria to go look for a less stormy place. They will release from their substrate and settle elsewhere in the aquarium. It is true that most sessile bacteria live in a protective layer of slime, but its protection will not endure high water flow.

This is exactly the point where mechanical filters differ from biological ones. A biological filter cannot perform its task quickly because of this reason. It is simply impossible. In my experience lies the correct velocity between 5 and 10 cm/minute.

If you don't believe it, I can't do anything about it. It's your choice. I have 3 filter in my 450 liter tank. 2 external and 1 internal: Eheim 2252, 2028 and 2213. I have washed them all at the same time and nothing happened in water values. No, ammonia, no nitrite... So, I can easy believe it that most of bacteria live in bottom and other surface rather than filters. And when I wash filters nothing bad won't happen. Of course if you don't have anything at all on bottom, then there would be lots of bacteria in filters and washing them too often can be harmful. But who keeps tanks without gravel/sand on bottom?? (Not talking about breeding.)

And what comes to this filter "Eheim 2252", it's just doing mechanical filtration in my tank. Water velocity is about 1200 l/h and the volume of that filter is small. I don't think that inside that filter there is much biological actions. I wash it about weekly and if I don't wash it, it goes blocked after couple weeks. So no way, there can't be good biological actions inside that filter - too small volume in relation to water velocity.

 

[Dubby]

Hi Tropical_adam:

I have a Rekord as well and I clean the filter floss using tap water. I do not use the black carbon filled sponge. With the other sponges I clean them one at a time under the tap and have not seen any ill effects.

I hope this helps.

 

[Inchworm]

Thanks for the interesting article, MrV

We can always count on you to do careful research and and make intelligent and thoughtful replies based on it.

 

[tropical_adam]

Thanks alot guys. A pretty good response there!

I live in the Uk where, as lithril says the chlorine levels in the water here is quite high and can vary from county to county.

Terefore i think i'll take the safer option and wash my filter floss and spunge in used tank water. Thanks again dudes/dudets 8) most appreciated..