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Cleaning oase bimaster 350

Lee iley

Member
Joined
19 Aug 2018
Messages
383
Location
Preston
Hi guys,

Not sure if I have done this correct. I cleaned my above filter out last night
Did the pre filter like normel under the tap.
Then I did my main canister baskets washed the sponges and biomedia out in tank water. Then the water that was in my filter which was very brown and full of mulm I emptied down the sink. Then refilled it with tank water. Is this OK to do or should I of left the water in the filter?

Cheers Lee
 
Then the water that was in my filter which was very brown and full of mulm I emptied down the sink. Then refilled it with tank water. Is this OK to do or should I of left the water in the filter?
This is how I do it, sometimes that murky water is the dirtiest part of my filter and I definitely want to get that gone from the system :thumbup:
 
Hi guys,

Not sure if I have done this correct. I cleaned my above filter out last night
Did the pre filter like normel under the tap.
Then I did my main canister baskets washed the sponges and biomedia out in tank water. Then the water that was in my filter which was very brown and full of mulm I emptied down the sink. Then refilled it with tank water. Is this OK to do or should I of left the water in the filter?

Cheers Lee

That's how I do it too, except I now wash the media under the tap, and I refill the canister to the original level with tap water with a drop of Seachem Prime in it. It's always worth refilling the pre-filter cartridge with water too before you add the sponges back in and put it back in the canister. That usually means I never need to use the priming button, as the filter will self-purge the small amount of remaining air.
 
I can’t see anything wrong with what you’re doing on filter maintenance.

That murky brown water is perfect for giving plants a boost, packed with good stuff

I can’t see anything wrong with what you’re doing on filter maintenance.

That murky brown water is perfect for giving plants a boost, packed with good stuff.
So I could use it for the garden plants?
 
Will
That's how I do it too, except I now wash the media under the tap, and I refill the canister to the original level with tap water with a drop of Seachem Prime in it. It's always worth refilling the pre-filter cartridge with water too before you add the sponges back in and put it back in the canister. That usually means I never need to use the priming button, as the filter will self-purge the small amount of remaining air.
this not kill all the beneficial bacteria?
 
No, apparently not. Our chlorine levels in the UK, and the extent of the contact time, are, I'm told, not enough to do that.
Wow I have always been told to use tank water to rince bio media and the sponges. Just mechanical sponges under the tap. It would be easier though if you can do it all under the tap.
 
Wow I have always been told to use tank water to rince bio media and the sponges. Just mechanical sponges under the tap. It would be easier though if you can do it all under the tap.

I always did the same until recently, but there was some discussion on it here:

 
Actually that brown gunk in your filter is the beneficial bacteria, not fish poop or fertilizers. I can guarantee you that after you washed all the sponges under your tap water your tank’s water has a dull look to it for a few days till the good beneficial bacteria grows enough in your filter to outcompete that bad bacteria.

The real junk is on your pre-filter.

It takes one to four months for a good biofilm/biofloc structure (“brown gunk”) to develop in new filter media. If the media is constantly cleaned this structure may never form. This “brown gunk” is largely beneficial heterotrophic bacteria (“beneficial bacteria ain’t pretty”).
 
I have used biomasters for around 3 year or so and always had spare pre filter sponges what change weekly, cleaned under the tap.

When do a more thorough clean i would clean the mechanical and biological media thats in the main filter body in tank water or the water that was in the filter by giving them a shake and a squeeze. Then i always re attatched and fill tank doing my normal water change then pump the filter to suck the water into the filter so i imagine mainly fresh water going in but i never had any issues. Added my Seachem prime into tank and done.

Thanks dean
 
Hi all,
It takes one to four months for a good biofilm/biofloc structure (“brown gunk”) to develop in new filter media. If the media is constantly cleaned this structure may never form. This “brown gunk” is largely beneficial heterotrophic bacteria
That is what Stephan Tanner talks about in <"Aquarium Biofiltration - SWISSTROPICALS">. The biofilm / biofloc is really important when you are reliant on <"microbe only"> nitrification.

I'm never going down the "microbe only" route, but if I was forced to and had to use a canister filter, I'd still have a prefilter, but I'd use <"Kaldnes type floating cell media"> in the filter, so that I could leave the filter media relatively undisturbed.

We have a bit of a discussion about this in <"Bio Media for Planted Tanks."> & <"The order of filter media in Oase Biomaster">.

Loss of biofilm can be an <"issue in sewage treatment"> and a lot of people have been concerned because, after they've become planted tank keepers they have had much "cleaner" filters.

Personally I don't want <"too much biofilm development in the filter">, I want my filter to remain a <"nitrate factory"> and I'll let <"the substrate"> take care of most of the other processes.

They are the same processes that would occur in the filter biofloc, but just with a spatial separation between them. The major advantage of this is that the substrate (or HMF, or trickle filter etc) is open to the oxygen rich tank water (and / or air), and you don't run the risk of a <"positive feedback loop">, and <"tsunami of ammonia">, which could occur in a canister filter, where <"the oxygen supply is finite">.

cheers Darrel
 
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