Filter Sponge problem

[brendanwp]

I have been wondering why my nitrates are sky high and everything else is fine and after doing a bunch of searches, it appears that my filter sponges are the issue. I have had the tank going for about 1.5 mths, fully cycled, everything (including 3 fish) is alive and well, but like I said my nitrates are super high. So I suspect its because I haven't changed or cleaned at all since day 1. (yes this is my 1st tank) So.....

1) Can I clean them in tap water and will this hurt my setup or do I need to use distilled?

2) is there anything else I should expect when doing this in terms of levels crashing or anything?

My tank is a 30 gallon, 60 lbs of live rock, 30 lbs of sand. No corals.

thanks,

[cloak]

You can ring them out under the faucet if you like, this is how I clean mine. You might be better off though not using the filter sponge at all. Well, sort of. Only use it for a few hours during a water change. Once you've really stirred things up in a tank a sponge can be a very useful tool, but once the water looks polished there's really no need to use it anymore. Let the live rock and the skimmer handle the bio load for you. (naturally) GL.

[brendanwp]

great...appreciate the feedback

[Goldndoodle]

I've been running a 28G nanoCube for about 14 months. I use sponges in my system. I keep 2 of them - every couple of days I pull the one that's in the tank, ring it out under RODI water, and put on a shelf to dry. I use the second sponge for a couple of days, then do the same thing. Constantly rotating the 2 sponges.

I also run filter floss & phos floss, ChemiPure, PhosGuard and Purigen in my system. I never replace more than one of those at a time. My schedule goes like this -

I rotate sponges on day 1
I throw out current flosses, put in new flosses the next day.
Keep repeating this for sponges & flosses

I replace ChemiPure every 3 weeks
I replace Purigen on the first day of odd numbered months
I replace PhosGuard on the first day of even numbered months
I never replace ChemiPure and one of the others on the same day, if they fall on the same day, I stagger those by at least a couple of days.

The reason I don't replace everything at the same time - beneficial bacteria builds up on these elements, just like it builds up on everything in your system. If you replace all of them at the same time, you might pull a lot of beneficial bacteria out of the system all at the same time, and cause other problems.

[brendanwp]

I pulled out the sponges last night. I will test the water today when I get home and see whats what in terms of levels.

[FraggledRock]

I pulled out the sponges last night. I will test the water today when I get home and see whats what in terms of levels.

usually changes may take a few days to actually show much change...

[JammyBirch]

You can ring them out under the faucet if you like, this is how I clean mine. You might be better off though not using the filter sponge at all. Well, sort of. Only use it for a few hours during a water change. Once you've really stirred things up in a tank a sponge can be a very useful tool, but once the water looks polished there's really no need to use it anymore. Let the live rock and the skimmer handle the bio load for you. (naturally) GL.

Great advice...personally i don't use socks sponges or anything, but this method sounds great. Use the socks just for specific jobs. Socks can be problematic for the reasons you mentioned and require a lot of maintenance. Skimmer, CUC and Live rock are the big players...

[Scrivo]

I have a similar issue with high Nitrates at the moment and the advice I have heard over and over again is to totally lose the sponges, bio-balls and any other filter media in the sump as they are just a huge Nitrate farm

That's a good idea to only use sponges just after a good clean to remove and improve water clarity.

Tank maintenance is THE most important thing so ensure you are not cutting corners, regular water changes are KEY to replace elements in the new saltwater (ensure you are only topping up with fresh RO water as the salt doesn't evaporate)

I would never clean any media from the tank in tap or even RO water as it can be harmful to the good bacteria that may have built up on it that helps break down the waste, clean it in some tank water you have removed.

However, goes back to the point of not having it in there at all and letting a good skimmer and live rock do the work....

Be sure you are not over-feeding your fish too, consider their stomachs to be about the size of their eyeball and consider that when feeding.

Keen to hear how your Nitrates measure up in the near future.

Lots of people talking about refugiums so I am looking into that...

[coffee_snob]

I rinse mine in saltwater.