Cleaning/Long Term Storage Ceramic Media

[65Fish]

Hey all.

Just took down my tank and won't be setting it back up for over a year. I have a fluval FX5 and I was wondering about cleaning the ceramic media for long term storage. The media has some detritus and red algae on it that doesn't really come off as I rinse it.

Could I treat it like decorations that have algae that need a deep clean? IOW, put it all in a bucket with water and bleach and a power head. Then cycle it in fresh water with Prime...repeat fresh prime rinse twice. ??

This works great on decorations. Was wondering if I could do it with the ceramic media.

Thanks!

 

[David R]

Quick rinse in water, let it dry then bag/box it up. Don't be too fussy, any crud left on it will break down when you set it up again and help provide some food for the cycle.

 

[deeda]

I have just rinsed any loose gunk off of the media and then soaked in a bleach/water mixture for a day, flush the media with running water, soak in a Prime/water mixture for a couple hours, drain and then let the media thoroughly dry. Once it's dry, package in a Ziploc or container with a lid to keep it clean.

I've had no problems using this method but I do give the stored media a quick sniff to see if any bleach or other funky odors have developed during storage before using it again.