Cleaning bio media
- Thread starter geosReef
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TokenReefer
Valuable Member
Clean what from it?
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Are you breaking down the tank?How would you go about cleaning this media? Been in the tank for 9 months since I started the tank
TokenReefer
Valuable Member
Did you replace it with something (well) prior to removal? If not I'd put it right back in and remove it piece by piece if you must at all. It's biologically filtering and has just been removed, right?
Mark Bradley
Well-Known Member
Rinse in tank water being changed and put back
Jaymzha
Community Member
Nooooo do not 'clean' that. If anything rinse with tank water (needs to have some ammonia) not plain saltwater. Then I would soak it in a whole bunch of bacteria + ammonia water. That media needs to be 'dirty'(filled with bacteria) you will crash your tank if you rinse off the bacteria.
Mark Bradley
Well-Known Member
Yours doesn’t look that grubby - a quick rinse in the displaced tap water would be adequate - I do this once every six weeks, or so, but am careful not to wash off any sponges or other good stuff
Helpful heads up
extra media isn’t helpful in a reef tank, it’s for freshwater use where surfaces are round and smooth and low surface area
the rocks in a reef display handle everything
specifically: if you hook up a seneye to any reef tank and remove all its bio media and SAND instantly, things that are supposed to crash a tank, nothing crashes and ammonia control stays the same.
so it doesn’t matter how you rinse them, if they are never put back things run the same. If you boil them, rinse them in tap, rinse them in bleach, no harm, because not even having them is no harm. Even the sandbed doesn’t matter, we do this for sixty pages in some threads as we move tanks and upgrade them
the only time media matters is in a quarantine setup, but not a display reef. The media is neutral, it may seem like it helps but no parameter changes with or without the media in a display reef, ammonia control doesn’t even change .001 ppm, it holds this tight.
extra media isn’t helpful in a reef tank, it’s for freshwater use where surfaces are round and smooth and low surface area
the rocks in a reef display handle everything
specifically: if you hook up a seneye to any reef tank and remove all its bio media and SAND instantly, things that are supposed to crash a tank, nothing crashes and ammonia control stays the same.
so it doesn’t matter how you rinse them, if they are never put back things run the same. If you boil them, rinse them in tap, rinse them in bleach, no harm, because not even having them is no harm. Even the sandbed doesn’t matter, we do this for sixty pages in some threads as we move tanks and upgrade them
the only time media matters is in a quarantine setup, but not a display reef. The media is neutral, it may seem like it helps but no parameter changes with or without the media in a display reef, ammonia control doesn’t even change .001 ppm, it holds this tight.
Mark Bradley
Well-Known Member
There’s an awful lot of content, on the web, quoting the benefits of additional bio media. Like so many things, perhaps, it down to doing your research and making your own mind up which side of the fence you sit. I haven’t done any particular test on the difference between having bio media and not having it - all I can say is my tank is stable, everything grows and so I fall into the category of not changing things that appear to work - at least for me. Also, bearing in mind I only have a 170 I consider the long term ‘stability’ I’ve had to be a bit of a score.
So many strong opinions here, I will leave mine out and simply answer the question. I have successfully cleaned Sioprax using the following tedious method, but it 100% cleaned already used Siporax.
1. Soak for 24 hours in tap water with bleach.
2. Rinse media several times in tap, then soak in a clean vessel in rodi for 24 hours.
3. Rinse media several times in rodi, then boil for 1 hour in rodi.
4. Rinse media several times in rodi once cooled to room temp.
5. Soak in rodi 24 hours with bacteria of choice
6. Ready for use
1. Soak for 24 hours in tap water with bleach.
2. Rinse media several times in tap, then soak in a clean vessel in rodi for 24 hours.
3. Rinse media several times in rodi, then boil for 1 hour in rodi.
4. Rinse media several times in rodi once cooled to room temp.
5. Soak in rodi 24 hours with bacteria of choice
6. Ready for use
It’s important to know if you remove all of it Mark, the stability remains
right above we have total neutralization of the media with bleach and a thorough clean, his tank doesn’t die due to the rule of surface area in reef displays.
this detail influences how we move reef tanks, clean them, upgrade and design them. Extra bio media is a neutral impact in reefing and there’s no harm in adding more. Or taking it all away
seems so backwards from how we are trained I know…knowing this detail moves the boundary markers out a long ways in what we can get away with in reef designs and maintenance
this rule changes the focus in the thread from tedious / careful to do whatever you want with the media, it doesn’t matter. As long as we are talking display reefs it doesn’t matter.
right above we have total neutralization of the media with bleach and a thorough clean, his tank doesn’t die due to the rule of surface area in reef displays.
this detail influences how we move reef tanks, clean them, upgrade and design them. Extra bio media is a neutral impact in reefing and there’s no harm in adding more. Or taking it all away
seems so backwards from how we are trained I know…knowing this detail moves the boundary markers out a long ways in what we can get away with in reef designs and maintenance
this rule changes the focus in the thread from tedious / careful to do whatever you want with the media, it doesn’t matter. As long as we are talking display reefs it doesn’t matter.
I wouldn’t worry too much. As long as you’ve got a decent amount of rock in your display you’ll be grand. Having some removable surface area in the sump can be very useful though. You can take it out and run it in a quarantine tank to minimise ammonia accumulation, for example. Personally I don’t like porous stuff, it may get clogged and is expensive.
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geosReef
Active Member
Will be adding more rock in about a month I’m bleaching rock right and will be cycling for about a month or so, how long u think I should cycle after bleach? Should I use water from my tank or make a new batch of water?
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geosReef
Active Member
The reason I use so much media is because i work out of town a lot and I’m gone for weeks at a time and keeps my tank pretty clean and don’t have to change out socks as often from what I’ve seen
this is how the rules of updated cycling science affect your tank:
that is enough rock to carry every bioload the tank will ever see. If you are adding inert rocks to the setup, that doesn't harm anything, because you have enough rocks
you don't have to cycle rocks before adding them, because cycling is for bacteria addition and the requirement implies that if you add uncycled dry surface area to that reef, it will not have enough bacteria, but that's not the case.
****old cycling science rules caused this confusion**they sure are backwards from the truth/amazing we never knew that as a hobby until seneye came around. Well we knew it, but had no way to prove it lol
If you want to upcycle other rocks that is fine, using tank water will work and 20 days wait, or a bottle of bac and 0 days wait, but it does not benefit you to do this. add in whatever rocks you want, they take on bac inside the display.
that is enough rock to carry every bioload the tank will ever see. If you are adding inert rocks to the setup, that doesn't harm anything, because you have enough rocks
you don't have to cycle rocks before adding them, because cycling is for bacteria addition and the requirement implies that if you add uncycled dry surface area to that reef, it will not have enough bacteria, but that's not the case.
****old cycling science rules caused this confusion**they sure are backwards from the truth/amazing we never knew that as a hobby until seneye came around. Well we knew it, but had no way to prove it lol
If you want to upcycle other rocks that is fine, using tank water will work and 20 days wait, or a bottle of bac and 0 days wait, but it does not benefit you to do this. add in whatever rocks you want, they take on bac inside the display.
