BrendanIgnatius

"Check out the filter media (i.e. filter floss). If it needs cleaning you can rinse it in some of the discarded tank water. This filter media will have loads of the beneficial bacteria needed for the aquarium nitrogen cycle and rinsing it in tap water with chlorine and/or chloramine can kill some of the bacteria, so use tank water."

Could someone please elaborate on this for me because it could possibly be the cause of an algae problem.

Butterfly

When doing tank maintenance it's a good practice to rinse your filter media in used tank water. This way the gunk is rinsed out but the beneficial bacteria in your filter media is preserved.
If the filter media is rinsed in tap water the chlorine in the tap water will kill the beneficial bacteria.
Hope that helps
Carol

BrendanIgnatius

Could you please specify what a filter media is, I am unaware. Thank you.

Butterfly

filter media is anything inside the filter. Sponges, floss, filter pads anything like this.
Always welcome.
Carol

BrendanIgnatius

Thanks for clarifying that, this should help my fish and myself out a lot.

speters33w

I have had similar problems with algae in my Turtle tank. I have two Fluval 305 filters (those terrapins are VERY messy) and I found when I have an algae explosion the cause is more often restrictions in the intake hose caused from algae growing inside the hose, rather than problems with the media.

I now check the outtake for low flow once every three days or so by pulling the hose out of the water and seeing if it is merely a little dribble. Merely forcing water through the hoses does not get rid of the algae in the hose.

I recently found the ULTIMATE tool for cleaning the hoses. It is a 3' "Drain Cleaner" I got the one I have from Harbor Freight,

but you can probably get something just like it in any local hardware store. A 4' model would have been better for my setup but this thing works like a charm!

BrendanIgnatius

Thanks, I'll try that out.