Cleaning a sponge should be the easiest of tasks, with few ways to become information technology wrong, but non if its an aquarium filter sponge. Dissimilar a sponge you would apply to launder the auto or clean the dishes, when in aquarium h2o a sponge colonises with benign bacteria that convert toxic fish waste (ammonia,) to less harmful substances.

If a sponge is the only media in your filter its really the life support organisation for your whole aquarium, so if you clean it incorrectly it could spell disaster for your tank.

Don't wash under the tap

The normal affair to practise would be to launder the brownish filter sponge under the tap, removing all the dirt until it returns to its original colour. This is one of the most common mistakes in fishkeeping as tapwater contains chlorine or chloramine which kill leaner.

Practice this and all the benign bacteria will be lost, sterilising the sponge and making it incapable of converting ammonia anymore. The fish continue to create ammonia which then builds upwards and kills them. A filter without bacteria causes New Tank Syndrome, merely this can happen to mature tanks also if you wash the sponge under the tap.

Ever use quondam tank water

To combat this, all filter sponges should only ever be cleaned in onetime fish tank h2o. Combine all your maintenance into one by first cleaning the glass, and so vacuuming the gravel, and then cleaning the sponge in the water syphoned into the bucket during vacuuming. Finally, utilize the dingy water to water your business firm and garden plants as information technology's full of nutrients for them.

See how to clean an internal filter here.

How to supplant a sponge

But over fourth dimension a sponge may start to atomize, shrink or not spring back to its proper shape when squeezed. When this happens its time for a new sponge, merely how do you do it without losing bacteria? If your filter merely has one sponge, cut the sponge in half leaving one-half of the old one in identify, and replacing the other half with new. It volition take virtually six weeks for the new sponge to become mature, and subsequently that fourth dimension you can supercede the second half with new.

If your filter has 2 sponges, supplant one at a fourth dimension, again in vi weekly intervals. And if yous have the luxury of two filters, change the sponge in i, leaving the other over again for most half-dozen weeks. It'southward a skillful thought to add live filter leaner when conducting any tank maintenance as inevitably some bacteria will exist lost.

And if you want a visual warning that will let yous know early if there'south a problem, install an Ammonia Warning or a Seneye.