cleaning mechanical filtration

[esoxlucius]

Absolutely everywhere i read people say never ever wash your mechanical filtration in tap water, kills all your BB. This is absolutely correct and something which i adhered to for a long time. However, my mechanical filtration is for keeping my tank water clean, not for biological filtration. Who wants to rinse out their dirty sponges and what not in dirty aquarium water which gets dirtier and dirtier every second you squeeze the gunk out. How is that classed as cleaning your sponges! I rinse mine under clean hot tap water (gasp, oh no, old esox has lost the plot the mass murdering fiend) and give them a thorough cleaning out. I've never had any issues doing it this way. Anyone else a mass murderer?

 

[xraycer]

If a tank crashes just because the bb was killed off, during cleaning of the mechanical media, then that tank is unstable to begin with, and most likely way overstocked.

 

[Chub_by]

As you said BB is not in the mechanical filtration it's in the media you are using for biological. Btw rinsing with tap water doesn't kill BB if the water is unchlorinated and at around the same temp as your tank.

 

[Angelphish]

I wash my filter socks in tap water and I haven't had any issues.

 

[duanes]

I always rinse mechanical media in water change water. Siphon off a bucket full and squeeze the media out, dump the brown water on the garden, and take off another bucket of "clear", but old tank water and do it again.
I figure the more water I change, the better, and the more beneficial bacteria in the system the better. Whether its needed or not, I don't know, but I've been doing it for 50 years, and don't recall ever having a cycle crash.
I also worked in the water purification field, and we found mechanical media that was too clean needed time to season before working properly. That "seasoning" did not mean leave gunk, but meant that a bit of biofilm helped with the process.

 

[DN328]

Absolutely everywhere i read people say never ever wash your mechanical filtration in tap water, kills all your BB. This is absolutely correct and something which i adhered to for a long time. However, my mechanical filtration is for keeping my tank water clean, not for biological filtration. Who wants to rinse out their dirty sponges and what not in dirty aquarium water which gets dirtier and dirtier every second you squeeze the gunk out. How is that classed as cleaning your sponges! I rinse mine under clean hot tap water (gasp, oh no, old esox has lost the plot the mass murdering fiend) and give them a thorough cleaning out. I've never had any issues doing it this way. Anyone else a mass murderer?

Hi, my name is DN328, and Im a mass murderer...(circle of people)...Hi ...328...

When I replace my filter socks, they go ina bucket of tap water, get sprayed with a hose and sit in a bucket of tap water with a little bleach. 2.5 years and no issues. My tank is not overstocked, and I'm certain there is BB on my black river rock substrate and driftwood. Not to mention bioballs in the sump.

 

[Angelphish]

Hi, my name is DN328, and Im a mass murderer...(circle of people)...Hi ...328...

When I replace my filter socks, they go ina bucket of tap water, get sprayed with a hose and sit in a bucket of tap water with a little bleach. 2.5 years and no issues. My tank is not overstocked, and I'm certain there is BB on my black river rock substrate and driftwood. Not to mention bioballs in the sump.

Exactly what I do.

 

[esoxlucius]

Well i'm certainly not on my own then. I wonder what logic is behind the myth then that you must never wash your mechanical media in tap water. Does it go back years and years and has just stuck as the common thing not to do in the hobby. Maybe it comes from a time before sumps and modern day cannisters when years back your mechanical media was indeed your mechanical AND bio all in one because the old fashioned systems weren't much good. If that's the case then yeah, never ever wash your media in tap water would be an absolute no no no no. Any old timers out there who can elaborate?

 

[Drstrangelove]

Well i'm certainly not on my own then. I wonder what logic is behind the myth then that you must never wash your mechanical media in tap water.

Imo, this is simply a case where many people have misquoted the original concept. Not new. Happens all the time.

The original concept as I recall was: Rinse your bio media in tank water.

From that over time, some people have asserted that his statement meant:

1) rinse your filters in the aquarium water where the fish are
2) do not use tap water to rinse any media
3) do not use tap water that has chlorine to rinse any media
4) never rinse purely mechanical media in anything but tank water

Some of these statements are partly correct. Some are erroneous. None capture the original intent which was to take all reasonable efforts to conserve the tanks BB. Rinsing in a bucket of tank water bypasses the possible mistake of rinsing in chlorine/chloramine, eliminates potential effects of a rapid temperature or pH change, and avoids the excessive force of a faucet or hose rinsing off BB.

A bucket of tank water is simple, easy, much less abrasive, guaranteed to have no anti bacterial agents, yet have the same temperature and pH.

 

[Jez1992]

I agree, I only have a pair of thick sponges as mech and then 150l of k1. The sponges are always cleaned under tap and k1 obviously never touched.

I think this may however be an issue washing under the tap for those with small tanks that use the small internal filters which are just sponges or those using only air sponge filters. At this is the only source of BB. However I don't think there are many of those people on here. Lol