cleaning hob?

[jonnymod]

I've had my fowlr tank setup for about 5 months now. Have a variety cuc, 3 fish, and an urchin in there. Everything doing well. I'm running a Seachem Tidal and lately I've noticed it's pretty gunky.

I'm used to taking care of fw tanks. I read somewhere online you can just use clean out sw hobs w/o worry of nuking bb because the bb resides in the lr? I was aware of that, but wasn't aware it was the significant amount of bb, or enough of it to be adequate for the whole tank. I just wanted to verify before I went ahead and cleaned the hob, it's truly okay to freely nuke the media in the hob in sw without worrying about disturbing the nitrogen cycle?

 

[Mark Novack]

It would depend on what is there for media. If it is bio filter then its probably not good idea. A gentle rinse yes. Do not shock the system.

 

[jonnymod]

It would depend on what is there for media. If it is bio filter then its probably not good idea. A gentle rinse yes. Do not shock the system.

It has just the includes in box reusable sponge and bag of bio media. So you don't want to just rinse it with tap water then?

I'm aware tap water would nuke the bb. I read there's so much bb in the lr in sw systems u can freely nuke the bb in hob without system shock since the lr would sustain the cycle. Just need to know if that's accurate.

 

[EricR]

Your rock should be sufficient, assuming you have a decent amount for your water volume.
*I run 2 HOBs with no sump (on 40 gallon tank) and no bio-media in my HOBs,,, plus rinse out the HOB filter pads with every water change and even fully clean out the HOBs with citric acid about once or twice a year ... no issues

 

[jonnymod]

Your rock should be sufficient, assuming you have a decent amount for your water volume.
*I run 2 HOBs with no sump (on 40 gallon tank) and no bio-media in my HOBs,,, plus rinse out the HOB filter pads with every water change and even fully clean out the HOBs with citric acid about once or twice a year ... no issues

So it's a 29g tank. I ordered a 40lb box of rock and a 10lb box of rock when I started the tank. The 40lb box was all crushed and jacked up so I realistically maybe used half of it? I'd say I probably have e from that. And a piece from last o used to seed, 20-30 ish lbs in there. So I should be save to just straight up clean the HOB then it sounds like. I'm just worried about uncycling all my work is all!