how often to rinse media

Hi everyone.Quick question.How often should filter media be rinsed and should it be rinsed at the same time as a gravel vac.I rinsed my media during my 25% weekly water change along with a semi gravel vac and now im testing .25 ammonia 0 nitrites and lower nitrates at 10.Yesterday was 0 0 20.

 

when it starts looking gross, maybe every 3 or 4 weeks. you are over-rinsing.

 

ok.so i should rinse the media when the filter starts to slow.

 

I have AC filters. I only rinse them once the tops on the filters pop up.

 

Thanks cm how often is that usually?

 

I honestly can't tell you since I've only just begun keeping records of these things. It really depends on whay kind of fish you have and how you feed them.

I also have 2 filters on my tank so it takes twice as long. I'd say at least 2 months with my stock though if I had to say.

 

Make sure you rinse the media inside dechlorinated water (old tank water after WC is fine), because the media harbours the greatest amount of nitrifying (ammonia/nitrite-consuming bacteria) in the entire aquarium. Even more than the gravel. Rinsing them with chlorine will kill them, resulting in ammonia spikes.

 

It's probably better to rinse the sponges in tank water, but I've rinsed them with warm tap water too. The carbon insert is still there so you still have some bacterial goodies going on. Rinsing them in tap water is kind of like putting in a new sponge. I do squeeze them out pretty well to get rid of most of the water before putting the sponge back.

Then again, I have the 2 filters running and I alternate cleanings on the which helps.

 

I always rinse my media in tank water.With my ac 50 i run the original sponge and bio chips,i change my carbon every three weeks,and i run two fluval polishing pads which i rotate the change out once a week.

 

I lightly rinse my filter media every other week in tank water. I alternate filter cleaning with the gravel vacs.

I had a mini-cycle once after I aggressively cleaned the filter media, and I didn't have any bio media in that particular filter. I've never had a problem in any of tanks where I keep a large supply of ceramic bio media in the filter.