Drying out a cannister filter

[JLake]

I was givin a fluval 405 that was very very very gross. Did I mention it was beyond gross? The tank had been shutdown for weeks but the cannister held water the whole time. After making my whole house stink when i opened it up, i threw out all the media and sponges. I washed the trays and cannister with warm water and a lil scrubbing. Impeller and housing also rinsed. My question is, How long would it have to sit dry and clean to make sure that no type of bacteria or parasite could survive? Someone here has to be smart enough to know this..... I was smart enough to throw away the hoses when i seen they were blocked by some sort of coagulated mass of blackness.

[jvision]

Many bacteria can live in suspended animation for years. Rinse it all again w. a 10% bleach solution and you should be fine.

[BettaFishMommy]

agree on the bleach! afterwards rinse, rinse, and rinse some more! and then run the canister on a bucket after with double dose dechlor to ensure all the bleach has been neutralized.

and omg, eeeeewwww! how could somebody just leave a canister sitting stagnant like that? if i had been the one to crack it open i probably would have hurled right there! lol.

[rED O]

No bleach, vinegar.

[hustler]

I have cleaned similar situations with red hot water..... scolded hands and alot of flushing and rinsing...... The black gunk you speak of comes off with just a good shake of the hoses and HOT HOT water..... let it dry a few days and you should be fine.....

Diluted bleach or vinager if you HAVE to.... but I havent had to use either yet.... and Ive had my share of really gross messes to clean up.

[JLake]

Thanks everyone! I tossed the hoses also bc they had been kinked a lil a well. Looked like hose segments were weakened. The cannister and filter trays themelves are very clean now. I'm more concerned with a negative bacteria or some sort of parasite being dormant and just waiting for the comfy confines of my tank to come ruhing thru.

[Ishkabod]

It sounds like you have the gunk taken care of and just need to be sure you have gotten rid of any nasty bacteria or fungus etc. Hard media I'd Boil in a pot. But what i found works best is a bit of potassium permanganate. Won't hurt fish in small doses and is very easy to tell if it's no longer active(it goes brown not pink) This is your safest bet. When i had to clean out a cannister what i did was put the input of the hose in a bucket of PPM(potassium Permaganate) and had it run through the filter. then i rinsed out the bucket and ran clear water through the unit until there was no more pink water coming out the other end. Once you see that you are good to go. beware that PPM stains hands and most porus materials brown.

Good luck

Edited December 1, 2010 by Ishkabod

[MarkoD]

just put it outside, nothing survives a Canadian winter outside.

Edited December 1, 2010 by MarkoD

[JLake]

When I asked the owner of the 405 why he stopped collecting fish. He said they all died over a month or so. So I'm a lil worried. Where do I get potasssium perm from? Thanks everyone for your idea!

[Ishkabod]

I don't know where you are but if you are in edmonton i have some you can have. I'll be at the ACE meeting on tuesday. If not you might be able to order some from a pharmacy. You only need a little bit as a little goes a long way

Good luck

L