Washing mucked up bioballs?

[jandb]

Hello. I recently purchased and tore down 3 FX5s and a wet dry that came with a tank I bought. There are a ton of bioballs and they're pretty plugged up with detritus. I've tried spraying them with a hose and even shaking them in a next while running water on them without a ton of progress. Has anyone ever thrown them into a laundry bag, tied it and put them in the washer with no soap? Any other ideas?

 

[Rachel.Cody]

Do you have a filter tube cleaning brush you could try? I know that may take a while if you have a lot of them. Maybe let them soak in hot water and try under a bath tub faucet where there is a lot of water coming out.


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[xraycer]

I've never tried this so do at your own risk, but how about using a dishwasher (without detergent of course). Try soaking the balls in water for a day or 2 then throw it into the laundry bag and then into the dishwasher on the "heavy scrubbing" setting

 

[Dieselhybrid]

Pressure washer

 

[tlindsey]

Soak them in very hot water over night in a bucket.

 

[CanadianKeeper]

Soak them in very hot water over night in a bucket.

this, then if not chuck em in a big bucket outside and hose em. Get water stirring it all loose. Kinda gross/weird of them to be in that type of state..
All else fails, buy new media

 

[Drstrangelove]

Hello. I recently purchased and tore down 3 FX5s and a wet dry that came with a tank I bought. There are a ton of bioballs and they're pretty plugged up with detritus. I've tried spraying them with a hose and even shaking them in a next while running water on them without a ton of progress. Has anyone ever thrown them into a laundry bag, tied it and put them in the washer with no soap? Any other ideas?

Try hydrogen peroxide (although bleach should work, I think peroxide will work better.) It should loosen it up if it's detritus. Peroxide will not harm the bio balls and in fact is safe for the aquarium, so not an issue to use it.

Note, if it doesn't fizz when you pour some in your sink and it's been open for more than a couple months, it's likely too old to use, so get some new peroxide. But, if it fizzes when you try some on a bio ball, put them in a small bucket and fill it with peroxide. If it works, you can re-use the peroxide "soup" by removing cleaned bio balls and dropping in dirty ones as long as the "soup" keeps fizzing. Once that stops, you've exhausted the oxidizing potential.

 

[chopsteeks]

Pressure washer

+1

 

[nossalucard]

20 years of aquarium(and Information Technology) experience has taught me one thing (K.I.S.S.). lets not make it too hard, BLEACH(NON_SCENTED) CAN BE YOUR FRIEND in aquarium keeping. I bleach EVERYTHING that needs a thorough cleaning,(as long as I have additional cycled BIOMEDIA able to sustain the tank while I'm cleaning the excessively dirty media) and have never lost anything due to it (FOWLER/REEF/FRESHWATER) if rinsed properly, soaked in dechlorinated water. This is one reason I ALWAYS have at least 2 dedicated BIOFILTERS and 2 mechanical on each tank.


Here is the way to do it. 1-3 gallon bucket, 1-gallon of water, 1quarter cup of bleach. Let soak overnight, rinse well and soak with clean water and 3 times the amount of DE-chlorinator for 30 mins. Rinse again until no bleach smell....DONE.

 

[FishNCash]

I have never try this but vinegar does a great job removing calcium and coraline algae. Maybe soak them in vinegar for 6-8 hours.