Bleached my AC sponge!

[Lady Hobbs]

And it come out as clean as if I replaced it with a brand new one. Obviously I have killed off the bacteria but there would be no bacteria on a brand new one. I will let it air dry for several days, rinse in dechlorinatored water and re-use instead of buying a new one. It generally takes me about 20 minutes to clean a sponge really well and using bleach took all of about 3 minutes!

I also use secondary filters on my tanks so no problem there. Now I'm thinking of cleaning my canister sponges in the same manner.

[Taurus]

Great idea as long as you don't bleach them all at once.

[Rue]

You know...I've never thought of doing that! Good idea!

[Lady Hobbs]

Oh no. I wouldn't do that, Taurus. It sure did remove the stink from those sponges too. blahhhhh

[Taurus]

LOL...I've got some spare old sponges around here that I'm going to bleach right now.

[Lady Hobbs]

I did the sponges to my canister, too. Those I will squeeze out in dechlorinated water really well because I want to put it back in operation.

I moved two weeks ago and never realized until I opened the canister that I had forgotten to add the filter floss to the baskets. duh.

[Taurus]

There's nothing more disorienting than moving to a new home. It take a while to get readjusted and back into a routine.

[souly]

Don't you have to wait longer because you know have to wait for the bleach to be removed?

[Lady Hobbs]

Air dying for a few days with delete the bleach and also soaking in dechlorinator. Same as cleaning all your plastic plants and rocks in a mild bleach solution and rinsing them well and soaking in dechlorinated water. You just have to make sure you are not removing the only source of bacteria. I have two filters on all my tanks so not worried.

My sponges are a couple years old and very nasty or wouldn't have tried it, really. But this was cheaper than buying all new ones so what the heck, why not?

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Great idea Hobbs. For what it's worth, this is the same method used for recharging Seachem's Purigen.

[Lady Hobbs]

Boy, I'm just eliminating filters like crazy here. I gave my son two of my AC 110's and the 3rd one has been put away. Also a cascade I am no longer using. I believe the canisters are sufficient for a planted tank, don't you? I do know that the HOTB's either pull my plants into the filter stems or knock the plants over. I think I went a bit overboard with the filtering considering these are only 55 gallon tanks. I may just use a sponge as secondary filteration.

Wish now I had the money it cost me for those 4 HOTB's!

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

What canisters are you using Hobbs?

[Lady Hobbs]

Fluvals 305's. Seems enough to me.