Washing Your Bio

[RD.]

From my 2nd comment in this discussion.....

"My bio loads are typically small enough in my tanks to easily run off of my bio ring bags, while my mechanical media could be cleaned under the tap. I don't like to recommend that practice on public forums as everyone's tap disinfectant residuals are different, as are everyone's set up."


This somehow got twisted into a I personally don't agree with rinsing filter media in tap water, or using a hose, or whatever else someone apparently got into their head. I never said anything of the sort. See above.

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With regards to mechanical media, vs bio-media. Early on FESHMAN said; "Well, biofilm grows in every surface disregarding someone's intentions. So technically they work as both mechanical and biological."

Correct, which got me to thinking of a fish shop located south of me that an Indonesian couple run. I used to supply them with dry goods years ago and one night I was there after hours watching one of their workers clean their filters on their 325 gallon display tank. This was a tank that varied with stock over the many years that I have frequented this store, but it was always a heavy bio-load of adult fish. Lots of large colorful fish to wow the customers. It was one of those "not for sale" tanks, that everyone of course wanted to purchase from.

This tank was filtered by 3 AC 500"s (old school 110's), each filter contained two large AC sponges, and was topped with floss. No speciality "bio-media" at all, just sponges, and floss. Each week they did a 40-50% water change, and cleaned the filters when the output slowed down. I don't recall if filter cleaning was performed weekly, bi-weekly, or what? The cleaning invovled rinsing the sponges in tank water, and the floss got tossed at each cleaning, with fresh floss going back in at the top.

That display tank ran that way for decades, and I believe is still running with the same filtration today. Just goes to show how much bio-bacteria can actually colonize an AC sponge, and how efficiently sponges alone can be in supporting a large bio-load of fish.

 

[skjl47]

Okay...let's see how this goes...

I wash my Biological filtration with tap water

do the same, whatever works for me is what matters

hello; I also do this from time to time. I use a garden hose when it is warm enough outside.

MY biological media is always cleaned ( in rotation) with tap.

I've always used (chlorinated) tap to rinse filter media, when necessary, without - to my knowledge - any adverse effects.

And have been hosing it off with tap when cleaning my pond filters with no adverse effects.

Occasionally I have to clean a gunked up filter pad thoughly or clean a filter mechanism throughly for proper function with scrubbing and/or tap water. In those cases I use tapwater followed by a rinse in a bucket of freshly Primed declorinated wate

Hello; Went back thru the thread. Seems there are seven of us who have in some manner used tap water to clean filter material. ( I did not include those very lucky to use well water. I had well water for a time and did not have to worry about chlorine and all.)
I am fairly sure all reported success in doing the cleaning with tap water. Note- I am not implying we all do things the exact same way. Seems we did not report having problems nor having tanks to crash from direct personal experience.

Here is one take I gained from the thread. By being willing to occasionally use tap water for cleaning I have the best of two practices. I can do the "swirl in old tank water" method when any of my filter parts or media need only a mild cleaning. If things get really dirty I can rinse with the tap water and get surfaces nice and clean.
I take precautions which are posted several times in the thread so will not repeat them.

There was a heated discussion about tap water residuals of chlorine/ chloramine and another about the question of if bb can survive contact with tap water. Also some discussion about where bb may be located in a tank. Not sure anything was resolved but do think plenty enough got said. Maybe topics in a different thread?

One last take. Lets say I were to remove one half of the bb from a tank at one such cleaning. ( note- I do not think I ever actually do so and this is just a thought experiment.) I get that bb are slow to reproduce (7 to 15 hours) and the rate is slower than many other bacteria types. To me that still means the remaining half of the bb can double in around 15 hours so the population may well be back to near normal.
Even if it takes more than 15 hours I have a number of things which can be done. Think of what advice is so often given to someone with an ammonia spike. Things like WC and reduced feeedings. I also have the sponges I can pull which I keep in my filters all the time. I also keep live plants which may help.

 

[RD.]

Seven members out of a total membership of 132,096 members.

All on weak chlorine residuals, or one can only guess or assume, as no one other than Duane and myself that have posted in this discussion have actually taken samples at our taps over the years. Those that posted their municipality were on chlorine only disinfectant, not chloramine.

And you missed someone that did report a tank crashing, a tank ran off on an Fx5 that was being cleaned under tap water. Or does my experience not count? I have seen tanks full of dead fish from the same mistake, using straight tap water. I mentioned that as well.

So all in all not a lot of information can be gleaned from this, other than one needs to be careful, some much more so than others. Which I think that I have only said like 100 times now.

From page 1, post # 4 in this discussion.

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How harmful, or not, cleaning your media with tap water will be is entirely dependant on the disinfectant residual in ones tap water.

Some locations will have very low disinfectant residual, which explains why some folks can get away with cleaning in straight tap water, while someone at 3 ppm or more, cannot safely do the same.
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[RD.]

With regards to filter media, and nitrifying bacteria......

Also some discussion about where bb may be located in a tank. Not sure anything was resolved but do think plenty enough got said.

Perhaps you missed post # 38. I responded directly to your comment of:

Hello; To use an old Bill Nye The Science Guy statement = "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. There is a logic to bb colonies being on filter bio-media due to flow but not clear why such media will hold the majority.

To which I responded; ... because filtration media, including bio-media, has more square footage. It simply boils down to one of my least favorite subjects, math. I even gave examples of different media, and their capacity.

Eheim EHFISUBSTRAT with over 450 m2 per liter = 4842 sq. ft. of surface area per liter.

Seachem Matrix; provides over 160,000 cm2 per liter = 170 sq. ft. of surface area per liter.

Hagan Biomax each ceramic ring contains at least 100 square feet of surface area x approx 66 rings per liter = 6600 sq. ft. of surface area per liter. Link c. Each 17.63 oz box contains approximately 100 ceramic cylinders - perfect for most mid-sized (approximately 1-1/2 L) media baskets.

Then factor in the constant flow of water, which not only causes increased exposure, but also creates elevated levels of 02, and voila, it's no longer extraordinary at all.
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I thought that this was common knowledge among experienced fish keepers, I guess not.








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[squint]

Those that posted their municipality were on chlorine only disinfectant, not chloramine.

Are you saying that chlorine is less toxic to nitrifying bacteria than chloramine?

 

[RD.]

Nope, never said that squint. If you have been paying attention you would understand why chlorine is often less problematic for fish keepers than chloramine, in a distribution system.

 

[RD.]

Here's a hint, it's one of the fundamental reasons why so many municipalities are switching from chlorine, to chloramine.

 

[squint]

Nope, never said that squint. If you have been paying attention you would understand why chlorine is often less problematic for fish keepers than chloramine, in a distribution system.

It sure sounds like that's what you're saying:

Seven members out of a total membership of 132,096 members.

All on weak chlorine residuals, or one can only guess or assume, as no one other than Duane and myself that have posted in this discussion have actually taken samples at our taps over the years. Those that posted their municipality were on chlorine only disinfectant, not chloramine.

 

[RD.]

Go back to sleep, squint.

 

[squint]

Here's a hint, it's one of the fundamental reasons why so many municipalities are switching from chlorine, to chloramine.

The switch is so less trihalomethanes are produced when chlorine reacts with organic compounds. I'm not sure how that would benefit fish keepers.