how to rinse carbon for filter

[jigamac]

hello, just wanted to get some opinions about how you rinse the carbon for filters that you can refill, i have been just putting the filter in a bucket of tank water and adding the carbon then swooshing it round, it seems to work ok but i dont want to kill the bacteria on the floss by rinsing with the faucet.

any suggestions are welcome!

thanks!

James

 

[Weezer]

The directions for the mag. 350 states to fill the basket, then rinse under tap water, I was wondering myself if that degrades the carbon...:idea:

 

[jigamac]

i have heard that running under the tap using the actual filter sac will kill the bacteria, kinda paranoid as i dont ever want to cycle again.LOL

 

[ct-death]

During a Water Change (WC), use the water collected in a bucket and rinse this way by swishing it around. I do this monthly. Tap water can indeed kill bacteria. However, in an esdtablished tank, the substrate and decorations should be built up enough to handle the short loss, but not always. Carbon itself is used to help filter out small particulates and molecules, so I would tend to think that any unfiltered water used would be trapped partially in the carbon, so yes I would say that rinsing in tapwater would effect the carbon, but we are talking a very small amount (30 sec exposure vs. months in a tank). My 2 cent worth...

 

[Weezer]

i have heard that running under the tap using the actual filter sac will kill the bacteria, kinda paranoid as i dont ever want to cycle again.LOL

Oh.I thought you ment rinseing new carbon..But yes if you just want to tidy up filter media always rinse or swish in tank water......:dance2:

 

[DarkSoul]

The directions for the mag. 350 states to fill the basket, then rinse under tap water, I was wondering myself if that degrades the carbon...:idea:

You would think it would slightly, that carbon is going to absorb the chlorine and stuff in the tap water, so as you are rinsing it off, it is absorbing and neutralizing stuff in the tap water.

Just a thought though... im no expert.

 

[J double R]

i seriously doubt that a quick rinse in tap water is going to do anything detrimental to the carbon, nor affect its performance in the tank. if carbon acted THAT quickly, then we would only need to use it in our tanks for a couple hours before the carbon was depleted and quit working.

 

[Weezer]

You would think it would slightly, that carbon is going to absorb the chlorine and stuff in the tap water, so as you are rinsing it off, it is absorbing and neutralizing stuff in the tap water.

Just a thought though... im no expert.

Yes i thought the same thing, but it's only rinsed for a few seconds, I try to put the big chunk's in and not the dust. I don't think swishing in tank water would force out the fine particals......

 

[12 Volt Man]

rising filters quickly under tap water is not a problem.

the reason is that although chlorine is used as a disinfectant in water and wastewater treatment, the contact time needed to be effective is very long compared to a quick rinse under the tap.

Just for comparison, the water that leaves the drinking water plant before it reaches your home is exposed to chlorine in the contact chamber for a minimum of 20 minutes (at least that is the standard minimum contact time here in ontario). That is before it leaves the plant. Now, there is a little more to it that that, as water plants add enough chlorine so that their will be 'residual' chlorine out in the distribution system (that is the chlorine that we get at our end out of the tap), but that is basically how it works.

20 minutes.

that is a long time when you consider that we often rinse our filters for what, 45 seconds?

that is why it is okay to give filters a quick rinse in water, even right from the tap.

It is one of those 'myths' in fishkeeping that has some truth to it (chlorine is a bacterocide) but you never hear the rest of it, which is the important part:

it takes time to work. Its not instantaneous.

And its usually longer than we expose our filters to it.

 

[Rbishop]

I rinse my carbon under tap water.