The Puffer Forum

I have an AqauClear 50 with 2 of the Foam Media and a pack of Biobeads. I was told I should clean the Foam every time i do a water change so that the water flow doesn't decrease. Should i do this or does washing the foam so much kill off all the good bacteria?

You don't really wash it, just squeeze it out in the tank water you have removed during a water change.

Personally, I rinse the heck out of mine under tap water. BUT I have well water so there's no chlorine/chloromines and I try to keep it a nice warm temperature.

I tend to understock my tanks and have live plants in all of them, and I figure there's plenty of other places for the bacteria to grow. It doesn't just grow on the sponge.

But yes, the "safe" way to do it is to squeeze it out in a bucket of tank water.

Sponges in my filters are for mechanical filtration only, so they get rinsed thoroughly under running tap water.

I have dedicated ceramic bio-media in all my filters that only gets lightly rinsed in tank water.

If the sponge is your only media and is acting as your only biological media, you should add something more durable like ceramic noodles and rinse the sponge carefully in tank water in the mean time.

I clean mine in hard running tap water and then soak it in the water change water (with a drop or two of prime) and add it back to the filter.

Good point Phaedrus, that's another reason why I don't worry about rinsing mine under the tap, I also have extra bio media in my filters.

If you have 2 sponge filters, why not rinse 1 each WC? I rinse under tap water, BTW.