using dechlorinated water to wash filter media = bacterial bloom?
LM
Ok, I've been at this for a while now, but I still get cloudy tank
immediately after filter change.. so thought I'd try to get some tips.
the issue is, when I decide to clean the filter (canister or power
filter), I dump the fine floss out (all gunked up, or wash one of the
sponge in the power filter), and then I use a dechlorinated water to
rinse the biomedia which goes back into the filter.
but after I do this, I usually end up with a cloudy tank for a day or
two (no ammonia spike or anything.. just a bacterial bloom, or what
appears to be a bacterial bloom).
My guess is that using a dechlorinated water isn't non-toxic enough
for the biomedia, and is killing them off when I rinse the media. Or
is it because of the fresh filter floss/sponge, it's not trapping the
finer particles that it inevitably gets spewed out after the filter
has been cleaned?
I know the best thing to do is to use tank water to clean... I suppose
I can try to siphon out 1-2G to rinse out the media, but... (I don't
do filter change the same time I do water change, so...)
what do others do? Do I have to wait a certain amount of time after
using the dechlorinator and then dunking the biomedia to shake the
debris off? I use Seachem Prime, and put it in the bucket while it's
filling with water, so it is definitely well-mixed. But of course, I
dont' know what the actual reaction time is required for full
neutralization to happen...
linda
Greg Wade
I use regular tap water to rinse all the media in my Fluval 405 canister filter. Every once in a while we get a bloom for a couple days and then everything returns to crystal clear. One thing I noticed on the tank that got the blooms, the hoses needed cleaning. Once I cleaned the hoses we stopped getting the blooms.
Greg
denizen
time as a water change. And because the media are sponge and coarse
material (no floss), none get thrown out. I cannot remember getting
bacteria bloom after maintenance, only in the original new tank in the
first month. However all aquaria are heavily planted.
Perhaps don't scrub your filter and media so thoroughly... Sounds like
you may have 2 filters on one aquarium, in which case they can be
maintained one at a time.
d.
NetMax
your filter maintenance. Cloudy water might just be particulates which
get thrown up into the water column. This usually comes from having
too-coarse filter media which may very loosely trap it, but when
disturbed, much of it gets released again. Gravel vacuuming can also
release fines back up if the filters are not catching them. Solution
is usually more turbulence through additional filtration of different
types of filter media. Plants can be very helpful as well. They get
coated in bio-slime which traps fine particulates. The clearest tanks
usually have lots of live plants.
If there is no NH3 or NO2 readings, then I think the fish will not be
as bothered by the cloudy water as the humans will be ;~)
ps: I rinse my filter media under tap water, heavily mono-chloramined
municipal city water. I don't think nitrifying bacteria is as fragile
as we are sometimes led to believe, however I never do all my filters
at the same time, my tanks are large and most of them are planted.
For a small tank (more fragile ecosystem) with 1 filter, I would
probably rinse in removed tank water.
NetMax
On Feb 12, 12:42 am, LM <lindama...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Andy Gratton
Kris
I know I go against the rules, but I do not use tank water to wash the
mechanical filter media. I will leave the biological filter media in
tank water and rinse it off with tank water but I always use water
straight out of the tap to clean the mechanical (floss, filter
cartridge, sponge or whatever). I do this simply b/c the filter media
is usually filthy and I want to ensure that all the gunk is good and
cleaned out. Using high pressure under the tap gets out ALL of the
waste.
I would suggest that you up your water changes. What are you changing
now (percentage=25%, 30%??) and how often do you change water. Most
of the time cloudy water/bacterial blooms can be fixed with regular
water changes and increased Bio-filtration.
Never clean all the filters at one time and this will ensure that you
have enough "beneficial bacteria" in the tank.
Let us know what happens.
Kris
http://www.tropical-fish-success.com/
On Feb 15, 9:14 am, Andy Gratton <anglerfis...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I only ever rinse /wash filter media in old tank water , but as a cheat
> on the big canister filters i do fill them up with dechlorinated
> tapwater to save on playing fishtank roulette lol
>
> On 12 February 2010 05:42, LM <lindama...@yahoo.com> wrote:> Hi all,
Kels Mustang
On Feb 15, 5:50 pm, Kris <tropicalfishsucc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Linda,
> I know I go against the rules, but I do not use tank water to wash the
> mechanical filter media. I will leave the biological filter media in
> tank water and rinse it off with tank water but I always use water
> straight out of the tap to clean the mechanical (floss, filter
> cartridge, sponge or whatever). I do this simply b/c the filter media
> is usually filthy and I want to ensure that all the gunk is good and
> cleaned out. Using high pressure under the tap gets out ALL of the
> waste.
>
Kris...
How long are you going in between rinsing the filter media?
LM
sounds like mine is some fine particle dispersion issue and not
necessarily a real bacterial bloom...
anyhow, today, I managed to resurrect my Eheim 2224, and decomissioned
my HOT Magnum.. I did use dechlorinated water to rinse the media a bit
before putting it back on the tank... and so far, water remains
clear..
oh, and I did pretty much scrub clean all the inlet and outlet tubes
and hoses while I had the entire Eheim off-line... that may have
helped as when I ran those tube cleaning brushes through, incredible
amount of brown goo came pouring out of the tubes. yuck.
the UGF is constantly running (for whatever it's worth.. not sure how
much it's acutally doing in terms of filtering) when I clean the
canister (once every 6mo or so)... and the tank is heavily planted...
so plenty of seeding bacteria in the tank. the mechanicals do get
washed in the tap water... but biomedia gets rinsed in dechlorinated
water, and new fine floss pad is put in...
I'm surprised people are using tap water to rinse! the fish industry
has definitely had me convinced that they all die upon contact... but
good to know.
linda
Kris
I usually wash the mechanical filter media 1-2 times per week.
Depending on the tank. My heavily stocked 240 gallon Frontosa tank
will have the filter media cleaned usually 1once per week or every
other week (depending on what I feed them). The lighter stocked tanks
can get cleaned once a month.
This is because I do weekly water changes of 25% to all my tanks along
with vacuuming the substrate.
Thanks
Kris
LM
too!)! I'm impressed! I don't bother cleaning out the filter unless
the flow rate is noticeably slower...
actually, with the Eclipse filter, I did clean the filter quite
often. the filter surface area was so small that it clogged
relatively quickly... and since it was decoupled from the biowheel, it
was easy enough to clean the filter portion when I did the water
change.. which was every month or so...
tanks get a 30% water change every month or so with as thorough gravel
vac as possible... the small 20G tank has aquaclear 200 on it (rated
for a 50G tank.. and it's filtering a 10G tank.. major overkill) so
that filter gets cleaned may be once every 6 months... the canister
on my 37G gets cleaned may be once every 6mo or so.. and even then the
filter isn't that horrible inside.. then again I have that nefarious
UGF that is running.. sort of... so it's possible most of the goo gets
sucked down and I vacuum it up that doesn't end up compacted under the
plate with the real bio filter (roots) under the plate. both tanks
are heavily planted...
linda
Mister Gardener
> I'm surprised people are using tap water to rinse! the fish industry
> has definitely had me convinced that they all die upon contact... but
> good to know.
toss in my practice and experience in the sponge discussion. Not much to
discuss at my place, I rinse the sponges under running lukewarm water
with a couple of good hand squeezes at the kitchen sink. Never used
dechlor for this process. Good bacteria are tough and plentiful.
Whatever might be lost in the cleaning are more than made up for by the
bacteria clinging to the surfaces of the tank gravel, plants, and diving
doggie. I had a mysterious problem a couple of years ago with my tank
water turning cloudy after water changes, the cloudiness lasting as long
as 24 hours. One of our bright members here, (with water on the brain),
suggested that my tapwater source was so very cold in the winter that
air and CO2 molecules were compressed in the refill water coming from
the tap and when the new water hit the warm atmosphere and tank water
they expanded and clouded the water, gradually dissolving with time.
Since then, I've added an aerator to my refill hose and no more cloudy
water.
I wonder if this explains why clear water frozen into ice cubes becomes
cloudy looking.
MG
LM
if it's air bubbles, I would think the cloudiness would dissipate
within minutes... or at least within a couple of hours and not a whole
day, as it doesn't take that long for the tank temperature to equalize
and gas exchange to reach steady-state. may be aeration helps
oxygenate and make the bacterias become more efficient??? dunno.
I've been getting a lot of air bubbles from my tap recently. after I
fill the bucket full of water with the Prime in it, and I dump the
bucket into the tank, the tank is very cloudy for a few minutes. it's
not all that cold here (central coast CA), so I don't think it's
temperature related, but the city has somehow decided to aerate the
water supply, or something. they've been upgrading the water lines
for the past couple of years, so it's possible they added some new
features, or something (pH from the tap has always been very high...
although gh/kh is like, 2 or 3.. so after a while pH drops, but
straight out of the tap, it's very high. so may be it's another trick
to increase pH or something, without adding chemicals?)
yes.. ice cubes turn cloudy since the gas bubbles in the water gets
trapped and can't get out as they try to diffuse out. But there are
particular condition where ice doesn't get bubbles. My brain has
become a bit addled (having only a toddler to converse with all day
does this to you), but I think it's when the temperature drops so
gradually to below freezing that air bubbles manage to escape in time
before freezing.
any how, this phenomena is commonly known as "black ice" on the
road :-) the dreaded clear-as-glass sheet of ice you do not want to
be walking on! (or driving, for that matter)
linda
On Feb 20, 5:02 am, Mister Gardener <mistergarde...@email.toast.net>
wrote:
Rebecca Turp
When I do water changes in the goldfish tank it can take over a day
for the tiny air bubbles to go. The tap water does tend to be very
cold.
beki