Changing floss in HT
- Thread starter Ryand63
- Start date
If the floss is your only filter medium, then removing it will remove your only source of biological bacteria. You should keep/seed some floss in your DT, so that you can pop in newly-seeded floss when you remove the old floss from your HT. In the meantime (until you have seeded floss ready), I would just rinse the dirty floss in some removed tank water when you do a WC and keep it in the HT for now.
It typically takes weeks to properly seed new filter floss, so adding new floss for a few hours won't get you very far. The only issue with the dirty filter floss is that it might result in somewhat higher nitrates, but that's not much of an issue in a QT/HT...your bigger problem will be ammonia if you remove your only source of biological filtration (I'm assuming that your existing floss is now at least partially seeded and is currently helping with ammonia).
Palting
New member
Susan had it right for you. For the "dirty" floss, keep the current floss and just rinse in saltwater to remove large debris. You want the floss to "look somewhat" dirty, that's the beneficial bacteria coating it, but you don't want chunks of debris in it. The need for water changes will be guided by the ammonia/trite/trates. I would suggest a minimum 10% weekly, more often if your numbers demand it.
Palting
New member
Sounds good. Good luck with the HT!!
