How often and how do you clean your sponges?

[georgef]

I was thinking of trying dipping my sponges in rubbing alcohol and setting them on fire to clean them... :fried: :bomb: :crazy:

Just kidding! :smash:

Just wondering what procedure people use to clean their sponges and how often they do it.

George

[DarkDiscus]

George,

When I do my w/c I put the sponges in the output bucket and squeeze them until much of the detritus is released into the water. I do it a couple of times a week for each sponge.

John

[keno]

I squeeze mine out in 5 gallons of aquarium water then empty and do it once more at 1x a week.

Ken

[georgef]

Don't you lose/kill some of the nitrifying bacteria that live in the sponges when you squeeze them out? Would it be a good idea to rotate the sponge cleaning? For example, I have six sponges in my 55 gal. Clean and squeeze two on Monday, two others on Wednesday and the final pair on Friday...

[scotz]

I rotate cleaning my sponge's - I guess I don't want to lose my biological filter (ie. bacteria) all at once. I also only rinse mine out once a week - it works for me - and I only rinse in water from the tank.

scotz

[Francisco_Borrero]

I don't believe anybody can squeeze a sponge hard enough, long enough or effectively enough to actually eliminate the bulk of their bacteria colonies. Unless you use very hot water, chlorinated water, or chemicals.
I clean all prefilters (3 in my 150gal) everyday, in tap water. I squeeze the sponges inside the filters once per week, in aquarium water.
Cheers, Francisco.

Rotating twice a week, in aquarium water for me. Seems to work...

Julz

[John_Nicholson]

I clean mine about once a year or so.....

-john

[RichieE]

Your supposed to clean those? ;D I clean mine 2 times a week. I have done it once a week but they are really dirty at that point.

John once a year?? Ill bite. Do your fish wear Diappers????

[John_Nicholson]

No diappers...I just change a lot of water. On my fry and growout tanks 50% twice a day and the sponges just don't get that dirty. Of course I have had people tell me about all of the brown colored stuff that comes out of their sponges when they clean them...I tried to tell them that was the good bacteria that they were worried about, but I don't think they believed me.....

-john

P.S. Why do they refuse to use the nice cone that I gave them...LOL

[fcdiscus]

Usually every4 to 6 weeks. Frank

[bottle-blonde]

i keep a layer of cotton on top of my aquaclear and that catches all of the crap. i throw that out every other day. i only rinse out my sponges every other week or so. they hardly ever get dirty because the cotton absorbs all of the big food waste before it even gets a chance to gunk up my sponges. it works really well!

[Carol_Roberts]

Every 4 - 6 weeks
Carol :heart1:

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Every other week or so!!

[Carol_Roberts]

John:
What are all those yellow babies?
Carol :heart1:

[darcy]

I like Carol clean mine every 4 weeks. I clean my pre filter's every night while doing water changes.
darcy

[Preeda_Lim]

Every week with tap water..

Preeda

[Jeff]

I rinse them out every third day or so in the sink.

[Ivan]

I gently sqeeeze sponges out in a bucket of tank water about ever two weeks.

[Rich_Long]

I do it once a month or whenever the out flow is low. (all my sponges are mechanially driven). Then I just squeeze 'em twice in a bucket of clean water and put them back.

[John_Nicholson]

Carol they are out of my golden pb pair.

-john

[larry lob]

Hmmmmmmm

Now there is a thought! clean the sponges......... never have never will.

They been in there 3 years and look green (bought em green)

i do clean the ones in the fluval every year but the out in the open sponges never have.

Larry

[DarkDiscus]

Larry,

Wow!

My sponge filters are GROSS after 2-3 days! Having all that detritus and decomposing matter in the tank cannot be good for the water column!

Then again, more than a few people seem to go quite a while without cleaning them...

Food for thought...

John

[Pick]

I rinse my AC prefilters in the sink when they get about half clogged - generally once or twice per week. The sponges in the AC's get squeezed in used aquarium water about once or twice per month. My Hydro sponges get squeezed in aquarium water about every 6 weeks or so. I break my AC's down and thoroughly clean them about every 2 months but I never "kill" and clean a sponge unless I pulled it from a tank and let it get rank and rotten before I remembered to turn the AC back on.

TC

[John_Nicholson]

John the real purpose of a sponge filter is to grow bacteria not clean the water. I know that they will accumulate some gunk but I keep the air flow down to the point that the bacteria is happy but most of the gunk just collects nicely under the filter. Hit it with the syphon hose and your done.

-john

[DarkDiscus]

And I do suppose that if you have a ton of tanks it's a pain to have to rinse the sponges regularly.

I guess you can't argue with success.

For myself, I do keep the current flowing quickly and do get some mechanical filtration out of the sponges in addition to the biological. But when you only have 4 or 5 sponges to clean, it's not a big deal.

Thanks for the alternate thoughts.

John

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi JOhn:
I see both parents have yellow eyes. Do any of the babies have red eyes? (may not be old enought yet)

Carol :heart1:

[John_Nicholson]

"Thanks for the alternate thoughts"

No problem..people have been telling me that I have been suffering from those all of my life.......

-john