bacteria question

[esoxlucius]

When i first started my sump my ceramic rings were all brand new and white. As time went by tiny little brown specs started to appear on each ring. Over the weeks and months these hundreds and hundreds of specs gradually grew until they were all little brown clumps. Now i thought, great, these specs are my bacteria.
However, when i rinsed out my bio media the other night (it was getting clogged up), all the brown clumps were washed away and my rings looked very clean again. I thought, oh dear, i've just got rid of all my BB. Anyway, i got my tank up and running again, checking my parameters daily since, and they're fine. So, i was thinking. Are the actual BB invisible and the masses of brown clumps i saw on my rings were in actual fact just crap!!

 

[jaws7777]

I assume you rinsed in tank water ? Your fine man. Thats just built up gunk

 

[esoxlucius]

I assume you rinsed in tank water ? Your fine man. Thats just built up gunk

Oh god yeah, if i'd have rinsed them out in tap water my fish would be swimming around in tank water with an ammonia content of about a billion ppm now!! Haha. So you're telling me that for the past few months i've been tenderly nurturing not colonies of BB, but little piles of ****e!! Doh.

 

[pops]

yup thats just organic crap clogging up your media pores, the BB lives on the surfaces of your medea, not in those clumps. good job cleaning them out.

 

[ragin_cajun]

I've "heard" that actually BB buildup is a creamy white, or very light yellow. Same color as beer yeast in the bottom of a carboy

 

[ECW]

Oh god yeah, if i'd have rinsed them out in tap water my fish would be swimming around in tank water with an ammonia content of about a billion ppm now!! Haha. So you're telling me that for the past few months i've been tenderly nurturing not colonies of BB, but little piles of ****e!! Doh.

Lmao @ tenderly nurturing little piles of ****e!

 

[pops]

, uhhh,,, yup! pretty mutch,lol