help cleaning filter & keeping tank cycled.

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E

enz660

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 14, 2011
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Connecticut
Hello. I am an owner of a red ear slider turtle so haven't been worried about cycling a tank ever because they can handle an uncycled tank. Problem is.. I just purchased a tiger oscar and placed it in the same tank. I did a water change and the quality and temp of water is optimal. I need to clean the filter. Its a canister Odyssea CFS500 and from what I understand, the beneficial bacteria in the filter die in five minutes when the filter is off. SO...

How can I clean the filter without killing the oscar due to the beneficial bacteria getting killed?

My brother said to just do it as fast as you can and rinse the media it in a bucket of tank water nearby.

Any other suggestions?
 
well if you have biomedia such as biomatrix or prefilter set it aside and leave it in tank water. the sponges and stuff are what needs to be cleaned. all the mechanical filtration. so rinse the sponges out quickly in a bucket of tank water and leave the bio alone!
 
all I have are sponges in the filter. One blue filter at the top, one white sponge, and a black sponge at the bottom
 
five minutes is a little quick to say that the bacteria will die.....it take me about ten-fifteen minutes to clean out my filters on my discus tanks and they are "dry" during the whole process. Never had a problem and its been 3+ years
 
I never heard of benefical bacteria dying in 5 minutes and I seriously doubt it.
 
Don't think million of years of evolution and the bacteria would just die after 5 mins of break time
 
who told you BB will die in 5 mins is a moron, they can survive weeks to months with given enough oxygen.
is the CFS500 your only filteration, what kinda medias are in it and would you tell me your definition of cleaning it?
if i were u i would just rinse/squeez them with the old aquarium water when you changing it
 
when you are changing the water, just fill a bucket with the old tank water and rinse your filter sponges in that water. if you rinse them out using tap water you will kill off a lot of beneficial bacteria.
 
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