Wondering how long after tank has cycled can i give the filter media a rinse?

Not sure if you have to wait a certain amount of time after the tank is cycled but always make sure you rinse in tank water and not just under the tap...maybe someone can answer your question about how long you have to wait to rinse the media out...

also found that adding filter bacteria to the filter clean regime is proving very good results indeed.

some people do not want to compromise their good bacteria colony after the
tank is cycle thus, they waited until the filter is clogged or flow is
impaired....but other do it immediately as long as you use tank water
just to remove the gunk and dirt.

me,,, i do it one at a time, the i clean is put at the last stage

ikkie78 wrote:


This is so very true... learned the hard way not to use the tap to rinse the filter! Screwed up my tank big time !! Only wish I knew about his site before I had done it!

can you use "primed" water instead of straight tank water? i.e. can you declorinate a bucket of water using Prime or other water conditioner of choice and use that for rinsing filter media?

MeghanR wrote:


I would think that tank water would still be best since it has the beneficial bacteria and you wouldn't risk losing the good bacteria in the filter...I could be wrong but I figure its better to be safe than sorry...maybe someone else can correct me if i'm wrong but I would just use tank water.

MeghanR wrote:


If you are cleaning your biological media then I would advise you only to use existing tank water. I expect that most good quality water conditioners will make tap water safe but I would say it's just as easy to use existing tank water to clean your biological media as it is tap water so is it not better to be safe than sorry?. If you are cleaning mechanical filtration such as sponges then you don't have to worry so much about beneficial bacteria. In many cases, these sponges need a damn good clean so I often take some water from the tap, pop a little bit of water conditioner in, and give them a really good clean. You're then using really clean water.

If you want to use fresh tap water, add conditioner and wait for one hour to let the water be dechlorinated. Then you should be fine.
But tankwater is prefered.

Again i just love this site, cheers for all the good info on the filter cleaning.