Are these safe?

[BigO6687]

My sister has zero bio media in her tank and I need a quick fix. I asked if she had pot scrubbers and she showed me these grayish cylinders called STEEL WOOL the brand is steeltuff.

If unsafe, please let me know an alternative, I've heard straws, gravel etc, I can't go to any lfs atm
thanks

 

[VLDesign]

Not a good idea. Use Nylon pot scrubbers.

 

[andyjs]

Go to a local dollar store and see if they have the nylon pot scrubbers. The steel ones will not work.

 

[BigO6687]

If I could go somewhere I'd just go to the lfs, It's a ten gallon, I just need something small maybe 1.5 x 4 inches of space to fill in the filter.

Is there some household item I could use other than scrubbies? I just went through the sticky on filter media, nothing I could really use there :/

 

[Dark Jester]

Yeah, don't use steel wool. Even in fresh water the trace salts in the water will rust it. Do you have an internal filter or something to put the bio media in, or would it just be floating free in the 10g?

If you have an internal filter, might just rip a small hole in a pillow you don't use and hook some of the poly-fill material out. Obviously don't open a feather pillow. Make sure it's filled with the the poly-fill stuff.

Plastic straws would be an option if you have some. Cut them into 1/4 - 1/2" pieces.

In all reality though, if you can just do some water changes it's not an 'immediate' concern. The bio media would take days to colonize and provide a benefit anyway. If you can get to an LFS in the next few days you can just do a few water changes in the meantime and be fine.