i just opened up my canister filter and cleaned all the media inside, rinsed all the media in old tank water. Isnit poasible to have an ammonia spike after cleaning the filter? Im thinking lots of beneficial bacteria could be rinsed away.
Filter cleaning and ammonia spike.
- Thread starter batang_mcdo
- Start date
Yep it can happen if you do too much of a cleaning of the media. That's actually one of the reasons I like to run dual canisters on my larger tanks, then you can clean vary which filter gets cleaned on certain months and not have to worry much about it.
Far as cleaning media, all you really need to do is if you have something that has both mechanical (sponges) and bio then really the only thing you need to clean in tank water is the mechanical media. I never really bother my actual bio media in my filters.
Far as cleaning media, all you really need to do is if you have something that has both mechanical (sponges) and bio then really the only thing you need to clean in tank water is the mechanical media. I never really bother my actual bio media in my filters.
Your good live bacteria will be attached to your media by means of a special bio film membrane and it'll take more than a quick swish to totally wash them away. The idea of cleaning your biomedia once in a while is to get rid of old dead bacteria (this promotes new BB growth) and any particles that have got through your mechanical side and started to clog your bio up.
That said, if you really go to town on your cleaning and rinse and rinse and rinse then no doubt you may decrease your BB numbers. This could theoretically cause you a few parameter problems, especially if you're very heavily stocked as well. Also bear in mind that your BB aren't just in your filter, they're on every surface under the display tanks water level, glass, substrate ornaments etc etc so these would potentially pick up the slack should you destroy a few colonies.
That said, if you really go to town on your cleaning and rinse and rinse and rinse then no doubt you may decrease your BB numbers. This could theoretically cause you a few parameter problems, especially if you're very heavily stocked as well. Also bear in mind that your BB aren't just in your filter, they're on every surface under the display tanks water level, glass, substrate ornaments etc etc so these would potentially pick up the slack should you destroy a few colonies.
Thanks its been a few
Montha since i last opened up to clean this canister and it did have a lot of gunk. I rinsed all the ceramic rings and also the filter wool to remove the gunk. I do habe another overhead filter which has pumice stoned as bio
Media bit not sure if it will be able
To
Support the bio load while bacteria im the canister recovers. Ill
Do test tomorrow to male sure
Montha since i last opened up to clean this canister and it did have a lot of gunk. I rinsed all the ceramic rings and also the filter wool to remove the gunk. I do habe another overhead filter which has pumice stoned as bio
Media bit not sure if it will be able
To
Support the bio load while bacteria im the canister recovers. Ill
Do test tomorrow to male sure
Unless you go seriously overboard with the cleaning, in chlorinated water or something else horribly wrong you don't need to worry. You might wash away a bit of the bacteria, but that will usually be counteracted by the improved water flow and the bacteria multiply quick enough to adjust in a day or two, imo.
thanks!
the only part of the filter which i really cleaned well was the filter wool, which i squeezed till it was back to white :d other media i just rinsed a little to remove the gunk.