Is it safe.

[hmoobvwj]

Sorry guys for asking these questions but I'm not very smart on canisters and sumps yet so I have the old HOB filters. But i'm wondering is it safe if I just did a whole media cleanup. Took out all the media + filter and ran them through hot water to clean them up. (been having problems with high nitrate lately). I never had nitrate pass 20ppm and now the readings are usually around 50ppm and so.....yea thought it was the media with nitrate in them so I washed them up. So is it safe?
Thanks all.

 

[Lupin]

I think you did the wrong way to clean up the media with hot water. You are killing the beneficial bacteria in the process. Expect your ammonia and nitrites to rise.

 

[dmopar74]

yeah BAD move. water changes remove nitrates.

 

[hmoobvwj]

I just did a water test on it, Nitrate: 20 ppm, Nitrite: 0 ppm, PH: 6.0-6.4.
Gosh, this sucks, all my fish is acting same though and the jardini is still waiting for food to drop as usual. Will they be okay or not?
Thanks

 

[hmoobvwj]

Can anyone please tell me how to clean media or filter without kill all the beneficial bacteria?
Thanks

 

[Lupin]

Can anyone please tell me how to clean media or filter without kill all the beneficial bacteria?
Thanks

Well, you just use dechlorinated tapwater or tank water. No soap, detergents, hot water and everything else that will kill the bacteria.

 

[Lupin]

I just did a water test on it, Nitrate: 20 ppm, Nitrite: 0 ppm, PH: 6.0-6.4.
Gosh, this sucks, all my fish is acting same though and the jardini is still waiting for food to drop as usual. Will they be okay or not?
Thanks

Just keep monitoring water parameters. Get ammonia test kit. There will still be bacteria in the substrate so they'll colonize in no time again. Do water changes immediately if you detect ammonia and nitrites. Just don't use hot water again.

 

[hmoobvwj]

Sorry guys...I'm still a noob at a good filteration system or how to clean them.
Thanks for the advice and I will now do that from now on. I hope the fish are okay and aren't too mad at me.
I'll keep a keen eye on them and the water chemistry.
Thanks once agian!

 

[bbrtmad]

You want nitrate at 40ppm or less for a freash water tank. As long as nitrite is 0 and ammonia is 0 your good to go. Beneficial bacteria convert ammonia and nitrtie to nitrate. If you had ammonia and nitrite but no nitrate then u have a new tank with no BB to help convert it.

 

[killarbb]

i use a rubbermaid tote with tank water. after cleaning mechanical (dunk into toted tank water, ring out in bathtub/outdoors......mutliple times) i then empty the dirty water out of the tote, and refill with tank water. i found that ac 110's fit on the tote(with a cup under the filter to level it out a bit) and then run the filter on the tote full of tank water. never seems to refoul the water in the tank that way.