Don’t remember how old exactly this filter is, maybe 8 months? I have platys, a couple of my older ones died recently so decided to do a water change ( whenever one dies the others eat parts of them and the water can get a little yucky ) I checked the filter and it has goop on it. Unsure what that is. Smells like rotten fish. Tried just rinsing it like I usually would but it still smells. Do I toss it and add a new filter? The water ph is ok.
Posted by Mae_The_Gay
17 Comments
Rinse off and keep using!
My shrimp are salivating at the sight of that
I have a similar question for anyone checking this out how do you clean it? Just rinse in the sink or dunk in a hot tub of water?
Really? I’ve been tossing mine when they are half as dirty.
When I used these filters I filled a mesh bag with 1″ cubes of open pore filter foam and a smaller mesh bag of activated carbon or purigen. Gently squeeze the cubes off in some of your old water after a water change and reuse them. Buy the granular carbon in bulk and rinse it first. Plastic kitchen scrubbers also work instead of the foam cubes.
There, I saved you a ton of money.
Give it a rinse, and keep using it, assuming it hasn’t dried up. You want to keep the bacteria in there going. Ideally, if you have extra room in your filter, you should supplement it with filter foam, or ceramic media.
swish it around in a bucket of tank water and it’ll get a lot of the gooky stuff off. That’s a gold standard filter right there! 😄
Rinde until clean enough and put back because that looks FILTHY
That smell is the bacteria that are eating all the ammonia in your tank. Rinse and keep.
If you ever get a new filter (for clarity) make sure you run it next to this thing.
That old filter is basically gold and you could probably use it to cycle a new tank in a couple days
rinse it in tap water, put it back. i recommended getting aquarium sponges and using that
Boil it in a pot for some home made soup
I never throw mine away. The nastier the better.
Rinse it and keep going. Though I’d stop using those cartridges and get foam and bags and cut to fit and fill with the media you want instead.
Someone should come to your house and rescue your fish.
And lose all that flavor??
Those kind where you empty the charcoal in the filters pocket thing and put the clip on I use for max 3 months
Rinse off and keep using it or squeeze it together with the new filter. ( The beneficial bacteria are trapped in there.