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Can you store mulm ?

Tony Swinney

Member
Joined
14 Dec 2008
Messages
1,185
Location
Cobham, Surrey
HI

I was cleaning out my eheim last night, and watching all the lovely mulm going down the drain, and wondered whether it can be stored for future use, or whether its goodness dissipates once its out of the tank system :?:

Can you dry it out and keep it, or freeze it ? :?:

Drying it out would be useful when it comes to putting in to a new tank, as you could put it under the substrate, and still spend time scaping without needing to get water straight in there - though it wouldnt be useful it it had become useless :lol:

Thanks in advance.

Tony
 
I think it would be best to use it 'fresh' rather than storing. However drying it our might be a viable option. The reason I say this rather than freezing (aside from the issues of putting muck from the filter into your freezer and the consequences when it's found and you're aksed, "What is this?" :lol: ) is that freezing causing water to expand and rupture cells. Drying may kill off a lot of the microorganisms too but some will survive and some can persist as eggs or dormant stages too. I also find that sponge filters, once matured, are able to be used rapidly, even after drying out completely, to mature and cycle a new tank. A significant proportion of the microorganisms must be surviving for the filter to mature more rapidly like that.
 
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