Cleaning the filter hoses.

[FishyMatty]

I cleaned out my filter hoses on my 20g last night and this morning I had cloudy water and nitrite was .25, I just barely rinsed the filter media and I clean my filters all the time with no mini cycle. Could it be from cleaning all the gunk out of the hoses? I run clear hoses and glass inflow and returns so they need to be cleaned quite often cause they get gross.

 

[OgreMkV]

I contacted Rena (Filstar) about that crap in my xP3 hoses. They said that that gunk houses a lot of benifical bacteria.

I thought it sounded weird, but sounds like there's some truth to it.

 

[Weezer]

I fill mine with a bleach solution and let them soak for about an hour, then rinse very well..not knowing your cleaning chemicals ,do a water change to clear up the rites, if you still have rites then something else happened, .............

 

[12 Volt Man]

I contacted Rena (Filstar) about that crap in my xP3 hoses. They said that that gunk houses a lot of benifical bacteria.

I thought it sounded weird, but sounds like there's some truth to it.

I agree. this may have been the culprit.

 

[12 Volt Man]

the thing is, that brownish slimy stuff that we perceive as 'gunk' in our filter hoses are actually bacterial colonies.

don't look very good, but they are good for our fish.

 

[Hurley]

I wouldn't worry about cleaning them again, I haven't cleaned mine and I have had them for over a year. Also, did you rinse your filters with tap water or old tank water. If you used tap water, the chlorine could have killed off some bacteria. That loss of bacteria could be the cause for the jump. Is there anyway you can hide the hose?

 

[12 Volt Man]

a quick rinse under the tap shouldn't hurt the bacteria enough to cause all that.

chlorine takes a long time to work as a disinfectant.

unless you let your media soak for minutes and minutes, it won't hurt anything.

I think it was the hoses that did it.

I too rinse my filter under tap water, and have been doing so for years.

its only when I took courses in chlorine training (used to use it for wastewater treatment where I work) that I realized why it didn't hurt anything:

the contact time is not sufficient with a quick rinse under the tap.

 

[Hurley]

the contact time is not sufficient with a quick rinse under the tap.

 

[jm1212]

the hoses are where the ammoina-laden water enters first, and it makes sense that alot of bacteria would grow there.

 

[FishyMatty]

The filter hoses on my 20g were covered with lots of little black spots almost looked like BBA. and the hoses in my other tanks are just a dull green mulm.

I only used hot water and a pipe cleaner to clean the hoses so it wasn't any leftover chemicals in the hoses.