If you have not read the thread about probiotics and using them, I would heartily suggest that you at least read the beginning and end of that thread.
I am using Bio-clean every week, but I’ve started doing something different and I thought I should discuss it here.
On my big system I run three x-large filter socks. They are expensive. I have to wash & reuse them. The washing is a PITA. It puts a lot of wear and tear on the socks too.
Some people can afford to throw these away and some people wash them in their washing machine but I’m not prepared to do either for a number of reasons.
Eventually I collected 10 of these socks, And I was washing them out with the hose (inside and outside thoroughly) than hanging them in the desert sun for decontamination.
Then I would fold them up and store them in a sealed bucket. This took a lot of time. It took an awful lot of water to completely wash out the waste clogging my socks.
It was also a pain in the winter time when we have lots of cloudy days and rainy days and you can’t hang them out to dry. (I understand why people put them in their washing machine.)
I added a big rain barrel to my system, and when I change my water it goes into that barrel, and then it goes out onto my redwood trees through a small pump. I have a drip system which changes water continuously, so I am always filling up and emptying that rain barrel.
Now what I do is, instead of washing dirty socks immediately and hanging them up, I just throw the dirty sock into the rain barrel without even rinsing it.
I am putting Bio-clean in my system every week and I put in a little bit in the filter socks every time I change them. When I change socks, I am getting plenty in that rain barrel.
At any one time there are 7 socks soaking in the rain barrel and three in the system and I never hang them up to dry or rinse them out with chlorinated hose water anymore.
Just by soaking them in the used fish water, infused with Bio-clean, nearly everything just dissolves.
When I want a clean sock I pull one up off the bottom of the barrel that looks the cleanest and I and I sling the water out. Then I turn it inside out and do it again. Finally, right side out and sling it, then I put it into the sump.
I don’t rinse it out with a hose and I don’t hang it to dry. I am trying to never kill the active Bio-clean.
It seems like there is always enough in the system that I don’t have to add any bio-clean to the rain barrel at all.
The socks get changed one at a time & each tend to soak in the barrel about three weeks before getting slung out & recycled into the sump. In that time, the clogged up filthy socks become magically unclogged as the bio-clean eats away 99% of everything, leaving just a few bits of vegetable stems or a bit of sand.
Using Bio-clean in my aquariums have turned out not to just be a big benefit to the health of the fish, but saves me lots of time, effort, and water, cleaning socks.
I’m not having any health problems with my fish, my Oscars have laid eggs, they are eating well, and all my feeder fish are breeding rapidly.
I’m also using this in my heavily overstocked saltwater system, and I’m convinced that “this is the way”.
I am using Bio-clean every week, but I’ve started doing something different and I thought I should discuss it here.
On my big system I run three x-large filter socks. They are expensive. I have to wash & reuse them. The washing is a PITA. It puts a lot of wear and tear on the socks too.
Some people can afford to throw these away and some people wash them in their washing machine but I’m not prepared to do either for a number of reasons.
Eventually I collected 10 of these socks, And I was washing them out with the hose (inside and outside thoroughly) than hanging them in the desert sun for decontamination.
Then I would fold them up and store them in a sealed bucket. This took a lot of time. It took an awful lot of water to completely wash out the waste clogging my socks.
It was also a pain in the winter time when we have lots of cloudy days and rainy days and you can’t hang them out to dry. (I understand why people put them in their washing machine.)
I added a big rain barrel to my system, and when I change my water it goes into that barrel, and then it goes out onto my redwood trees through a small pump. I have a drip system which changes water continuously, so I am always filling up and emptying that rain barrel.
Now what I do is, instead of washing dirty socks immediately and hanging them up, I just throw the dirty sock into the rain barrel without even rinsing it.
I am putting Bio-clean in my system every week and I put in a little bit in the filter socks every time I change them. When I change socks, I am getting plenty in that rain barrel.
At any one time there are 7 socks soaking in the rain barrel and three in the system and I never hang them up to dry or rinse them out with chlorinated hose water anymore.
Just by soaking them in the used fish water, infused with Bio-clean, nearly everything just dissolves.
When I want a clean sock I pull one up off the bottom of the barrel that looks the cleanest and I and I sling the water out. Then I turn it inside out and do it again. Finally, right side out and sling it, then I put it into the sump.
I don’t rinse it out with a hose and I don’t hang it to dry. I am trying to never kill the active Bio-clean.
It seems like there is always enough in the system that I don’t have to add any bio-clean to the rain barrel at all.
The socks get changed one at a time & each tend to soak in the barrel about three weeks before getting slung out & recycled into the sump. In that time, the clogged up filthy socks become magically unclogged as the bio-clean eats away 99% of everything, leaving just a few bits of vegetable stems or a bit of sand.
Using Bio-clean in my aquariums have turned out not to just be a big benefit to the health of the fish, but saves me lots of time, effort, and water, cleaning socks.
I’m not having any health problems with my fish, my Oscars have laid eggs, they are eating well, and all my feeder fish are breeding rapidly.
I’m also using this in my heavily overstocked saltwater system, and I’m convinced that “this is the way”.
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