Rinsing your sponges

[RogueDiscus]

Just a thought to share and didn't want to hijack another thread. Many folks recommend rinsing sponge filters and media in tank water so as not to kill off beneficial bacteria. This has always made good sense to me, but at some point I decided, since I'm on a well and my water is not chlorinated, it's OK to use my tap water at the appropriate temp to rinse my sponges. It has a very high CaCO3 (KH) content, which I think might even help support the reestablishment of the bacteria colony. Seems to work for me.

[SNap0283]

I used to live in a town that did not chlorinate the water and I always rinsed everything right out of the tap and never had a problem. The running water gave me the chance to get it much cleaner than I could have in a bucket.

[DJW]

Same here, I never think about chlorine. But since the water in the ageing barrels is un-chlorinated, I am careful not to introduce any "living" water from the tanks on pumps or my hands, or I get stuff growing in the barrels.