Baking Filter Media???

Can you bake carbon and ceramic media fillers such as Fluval ceramic nodes to recharge them after several months of use? Thanks!

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by 2apes2gp667wr on August 18, 2011 at 10:37am

Ceramic media is used to house beneficial bacteria. Baking them will give them a sunburn. To my knowledge once activated carbon has been full charged of impurities it cannot be removed from the carbon. Something like Purigen on the other hand is similar to carbon, but can be recharged. I don't know about removing medicine with Purigen though like with carbon. As far as I know it's just for particulates.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by 1gh7ijdl92ra7 on August 18, 2011 at 2:33pm

It would do more harm than good. Those medias house alot of benficial bacteria that are keeping you tank clean :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Ayers on August 18, 2011 at 5:23pm

I understand that these house bacteria, but I also heard that over time they can actually become clogged with gunk and start putting toxins back into the water. Is this not the case or do the planted tanks balance that effect out? So is it okay to never change these medias? Thanks for your help, just trying to understand the best approach...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by 2apes2gp667wr on August 18, 2011 at 8:13pm

Here's what I do. One I don't use carbon. Two I do water changes every week, 40-50%. Every other water change I just take out the filter media, in my case sponge and ceramics and rinse them in some tank water to get the mulm off. I never change my ceramics and only change sponges when they are totally falling apart. What type of filter are you running? Does it have those all in one cartridges or individual media?

I haven't heard of putting toxins back into the water, but I imagine if you never cleaned the filter it would clog up and stop flow thereby releasing back into the water. What is released back would be basically fish feces and some detritus which could in theory toxify some water. That would take a long time. But I think someone who is on a fishkeeping website looking for info would never let their tank get to that level, so I'm pretty sure you are safe.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Ayers on August 18, 2011 at 8:18pm

Makes sense, thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by 1gh7ijdl92ra7 on August 18, 2011 at 8:15pm

Well if you want to wash out the media I reccomend rinsing in tank water, not tap, this would clean it and maintain the bacteria.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Ayers on August 18, 2011 at 8:19pm

Sounds good, thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by 1gh7ijdl92ra7 on August 18, 2011 at 8:20pm

No problem brother

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Martin Seel on August 18, 2011 at 8:41pm

take your ceramic and carbon and throw them both in the bin lol

carbon is no good in a planted tank

ceramic media gets clogged and needs changing every 6-8 months

get some plastic bio media you never have to replace it and you can just rinse it in some tank water once a month

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Ayers on August 18, 2011 at 8:56pm

Sounds like the best plan. May use scrubber pads also. Same concept as plastic balls. As long as they are bare and without any additives, I have seen that they work great for year. Thanks.