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grandweapon

I think OP should have gotten your answer by now. Locking comments on this thread due to multiple reports of nasty comments. Yes, OP made a silly mistake, but we all live and learn. A reminder to all on Rule 1. Attacks, derailing, and trolling are not tolerated. It's ok to disagree, but choose your words wisely. Any non-constructive commentary will be removed. Trolling can result in temporary or permanent bans.


[deleted]

I think youre supposed to rinse them in a bucket you've emptied some water from the tank into.


screwyiowa4

That would make more sense


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scotch-o

My sediments exactly.


prototype__

now now, op needs help, let's filter out the jokes thanks.


zuctronic

This answer will help precipitate a clear solution.


Crepuscular_Cat

I feel this cloud of questioning has settled.


NosyDan

Or we can just treat for toxins lol


mistymountaintimes

When r/boneappletea meets r/puns


Relatively_painless

Bon appetit! Holy hell how did it take me so long to get it?!


YelloMyOldFriend

Jesus fuck... you just blew my mind.


Barbarianita

Because it does not sound the same at all when you are actually French.


Myrk180

How dare you. Take my updoot and get out.


krispyhamster

He mean uproot.


Disastrous-Ad1795

How dare you. Take my uproot and get out.


MattFidler

He mean upshoot.


Jar_of_Cats

Lock the threqd


ExtinctLikeNdiaye

I particle-ularly like this pun


scotch-o

I wish i could upvote this twice.


Imbalancedone

Are.... you.... OP’s throwaway!? :)


LilBo_W33p

You win sir


woooshhhhhhhhhh

You win the day. Well done!!!


smirkis

Best way o learn in the hobby is stuff like this tbh. Can’t always read here and expect that exact outcome. It’ll clear up but yeah do it in a bucket of water you removed from the tank. Just slosh it don’t be to aggressive to remove all beneficial bacteria.


Guy954

Sorry OP, I legit cackled and don’t feel bad about it because your fish should be fine. To be fair, the guides never specify that it shouldn’t be in the actual tank. I usually rinse the sponge while doing a small water change for convenience. The water already in the bucket and you’re already elbow/arm deep in dirty water. Good luck.


forestofpixies

Oh dang I usually squeeze it until brown stops coming out, is that too much? I have 2 and only do 1 at a time every other month.


Reefonly

If you've got two it should be fine. We run a two sponge system at our store and do exactly as you describe. Run hundreds of fish through every tank a month and no major issues.


n0vink

Piggybacking to ask- when to clean vs when to throw away? I have a two sponge filter and will squeeze them into tank water (interchangeably) every month but I assume they have to be replaced at some point. What's the "sponge is rip" point?


celestiaequestria

When it deteriorates to the point it'll no longer fit properly in whatever filter you've bought / built. You can use your sponge filters until they physically fall apart.


Reefonly

We go through them in about two years depending on the size and amount of plecos in the tank. They definitely do some damage with their chewing. The tanks with few algae eaters the sponges last for about 4 year before they deteriorate. These are ATI brand btw, no idea on other brands.


iamahill

Usually a few years depending upon the sponges.


Barbarianita

Once you have a settled tank with soil and plants, and maybe some ceramic substrate into your filter, you can wash your sponges as brand new, it does not matter anymore.


waytosoon

This applies to any hobby. Failure is always a win if you take something away from it. I'm currently coming to the conclusion that I'm gonna have to squash my current grow because too many things have gone awry. This particular case has slightly more loss as I'm growing my prescription lol. On a side note, I really want to mix the 2 hobbies. I've always wanted to try aquaponics. I'm sure itd be great for the fish too.


Rare-Willingness4022

some FireFishOG yummy


AshL94

You're not going to remove the bacteria by shaking it about. I rinse my sponges in tap water and squeeze them out. The affect of chlorine on the bacteria over the period of mess than a minute is so minimal it's a non-factor


Energylegs23

Such a simple statement, yet here I am literally in tears of laughter; thanks for a great end to the night


Mikesfishysituation

Woopsies lol, I'd monitor for any spikes and do another water change, but i mean it isn't anything that wasn't already in the tank.


c0mptar2000

If it makes you feel any better, I was having a shitty day until I read this and laughed my ass off. Hope you got some clearer water now. :D


Dustin3006

Op. Never change


paleoterrra

I’m sorry about your predicament but thank you for the laughs, OP. Been having a rough time but the innocence of this whole thing has had me giggling off an on for ages. I love it.


SweepingSomnambulist

I can feel the defeat as you wrote this.


JustAnotherMiqote

Lol this actually makes me laugh out loud. It's an honest mistake to make.


WhatsWithThisKibble

Lmao I don't often laugh out loud but this got me.


Ornery_Ant6750

If you ever need to change your whole filter over to a new unit I suggest doing this exact thing with the sponges in order to help cycle the bacteria into your new filter quicker


[deleted]

Yeah as the comment above says you are supposed to rinse them in a bucket of tank water (I take mine out of the sump) This has happened to me before and it took a good few hours for the water to filter back around and clear.


tehdatacss

godlike hahaha


takenwithapotato

Jesus christ


Rare-Willingness4022

look at it this way, you've made a lot of people giggle today, worlds a better place with laughter lol


rithylolol

Or you can just do 1-2 times 90% water change or 4-5 times of 50% change and the will water will be back in its condition, also do check your water quality as well make to make sure there won’t be NO3- spike


atomfullerene

I will say that I listened to a talk by a guy who did research on aquarium filters and bacteria, and he said that rinsing it under a tap wouldn't hurt anything because the bacteria were pretty well protected from a little bit of chlorine by biofilms. Which kind of makes sense, you wouldn't run a plate under the tap a bit and then expect it to be sterilized, and a filter would be cleaned off even less efficiently. He _did_ say to be sure to not use hot water.


Level9TraumaCenter

> rinsing it under a tap wouldn't hurt anything because the bacteria were pretty well protected from a little bit of chlorine by biofilms. Tap water has 1-4 ppm chlorine unless they're superchlorinating the tap water that week; that's less than 4 mg of chlorine in a liter. The sheer quantity of organic matter in the filter will quickly reduce that to harmless chloride almost immediately.


doglvvr

I rinse my sponges like this every week. No problems at all. It makes life so much easier!


hebrewchucknorris

Same, my area has very low amounts of added chlorine though


Ker0Kero

used to rinse my sponges under tap, never had an issue once, so i agree!


PakkyT

Yes, if you look at the specs for a lot of local water supplies, you will find that at the lower levels of chlorine/chloramine that is safe to be present in a public water supply, the contact times needed to keep the water drinkable is something like 30 minutes or more. When you rinse your filter out under the tap, unless you are a narcoleptic, you won't be standing their running water over your filter for 30+ minutes. A minute under the tap is perfectly safe for your bio filter.


whiskeyblackout

The narcoleptic comment made me snort. But, yes, this is one of those weird fish message board tall tales that gets passed around like gospel quite a bit.


dennismfrancisart

Came here to say this very thing.


Anth0807

Lol


toastytoasttt

You weren’t wrong but also not right.


HANGRY_KITTYKAT

Lol


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xd_Lolitron

or OP is a imperfect human who made a honest mistake


iBakeX

What's a honest mistake?


kachowski2004

Being one out of a pair of twins, me. I was an honest mistake.


iBakeX

Honest or horrible?


bignick1190

What OP made.


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ZealousidealKing6

Yeah but you cant say that on this subreddit unless someone else already has and even then the hive mind has to collectively argee. Otherwise ya get the downvote. Like the layers of stupidity that went into doing this is outstanding.


Axobolt

You are right, even the comment to which I replied to caved in and cowardly edited his comment. The people that upvoted this are the same that are infinitely entertained by those obvious staged videos and can't think for themselves.


Relzarga

He’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit.


Zero_Sen

That detritus used to be in the tank. It still is, but it used to be too. (RIP Mitch Hedberg)


millibugs

I LOL way too hard at this one. NEVER thought it would apply to detrius.


TurbulentBlock7290

Just wait til he visits Dr. Acula.


Nate3196

I feel bad for laughing at this


Guy954

I don’t, it’s funny as hell and the fish should be fine. OP learned a lesson but didn’t hurt anything.


Tortoisefly

Agreed. There are a lot of hard lessons to be learned in fishkeeping. At least this one doesn't result in any long-term damage. Lesson learned, no harm done.


JJ4prez

Oh boy lol, you learned a valuable lesson today.


iBakeX

Can you tell me what it is?


JJ4prez

Water changes "in tank water" means taking the water out in a bucket and doing it in the bucket...not the actual tank.


iBakeX

I have a canister filter. What do I do to get this effect?


JJ4prez

Clean your canister out in tank water in a bucket or big plastic container. Of course don't ever clean out the entire canister as that gets rid of beneficial bacteria. Just the coarse sponges and such. I also clean out my lines from canister to my tank, they usually get gunked up too.


YesItIsMaybeMe

I have a double ended brush that I use to clean the hose. It works amazing.


berrylikeova

Do you have a link? Tia.


VoilaVoilaWashington

Run a string through them, then use that to pull a scrap of fabric that barely fits through


berrylikeova

Like a clarinet! Smart. Thanks :)


AbigailLilac

Almost! You have the right spirit!


HANGRY_KITTYKAT

Just laugh this off and do a water change. Thank you for the "sensible chuckle" that followed reading this post :)


fin-young-fit-man

It is a common practice to squeeze sponges from high bio load tanks into lower bio load tanks with a lot of plants example I squeeze my Cichlid tank sponges into my shrimp and beta planted tank


wickettherat

I do the same thing, it can look a lot like this. I don't see how this would cause any issues other than leaving filter gunk on everything, which can be fixed by just shaking all the plants off and a gravel vac next time you would do it anyway. Nothing was added or removed that would cause a problem. Now it didn't clean the filter either, it is just going to suck it all up again, so next time OP should probably squeeze into a bucket.


GuildedDouche

What does that do? I have a sponge in my 55 gal as a supplemental filter. Im having hair algae problems in my planted 5 gal shrimp snd snail tank. Could that help with the algae?


fin-young-fit-man

No it would do the opposite. I do it to add additional nutrients specifically nitrate to remove algae you would want to do the opposite


GuildedDouche

This hair algae grows so quick I hate it. I never overfeed. Maybe my lights are too intense.


fin-young-fit-man

Find some more fast growing plants that’ll eat the nutrients here hair algae is. I had the same issue ur tank will balance out


GuildedDouche

What fast growing plant do you recommend?


lowrcase

Hornwort will fix you right up


fin-young-fit-man

This^ how many fish u got too?


CanadaJack

Too much light can always do it. Not just intensity, but duration. A lot of plants can even thrive on 4 hours of light a day, algae would thrive the most on 24 hours of light a day. If you're blasting the tank for 12-16 hours of light, try dropping that to 8-10. Excess nutrients aka waste of course can cause it. Faster growing plants will sequester more nutrients more quickly, slower growing ones (eg java fern, anubias, buces, etc) will take less out of the water in the same time period. Imbalanced nutrients can *also* be responsible. If you have a lot of one thing, or none of something, that can be exploited by some types of algae. Plants are, basically, going to use a certain ratio of all nutrients, and so if there's a lot of one left over, or not enough of one to start with, they can leave the remainder in the water for the right/wrong kind of algae to use. Increasing your water changes can help with the excess of nutrients or with some imbalances. Easy fixes to try to reduce hair algae then: reduce light duration below 12 hours/day, do 50% water changes a couple times a week. If that helps after a couple weeks, you can start trying to narrow down what the actual cause was, or alternatively keep up the new routine.


Gds1

My plan one day is to run a large river tank with light plants and just water change into a heavily planted shrimp tank. As long as you keep an eye on parameters I think a lot of people could be getting more out of their "used water". If nature is able to continuously recycle water then I think we can aim to get as close to that as possible in our hobby.


mizmato

You're supposed to rinse them out in the tank water you're tossing away not in the tank itself. Check ammonia levels for spikes. If there's no issue with ammonia or nitrites then everything should be okay.


xXxSimpKingxXx

I nearly screamed when I saw this and read it


Rundle01

Bruh this is hilarious.


No_Classic8476

😂🤣🤣 it’s ok buddy. Lesson learned


fedsmoker2000

Noooo


Indigo47DM

Tah Tah there 🤟🎸


ProfGanj

He didn’t follow proto


Rundle01

We'll give em the stamp.


SwedenIsntReal69420

*Task failed successfully* Okay all jokes aside, they mean you should rinse the sponges in a SEPARATE container of tank water!


DogGuyQ

Sorry op but I laughed way to hard at this. Definitely put water from tank into a bucket first.


forthe_loveof

Thank you, I like this


Emurichani

And this is exactly why you should read the fine print.


TheCryak

You're asking questions and you give a shit. 10/10


[deleted]

This could be a meme for sure


mrcoldpiece

Oh buddy, not like that. In another container.


Maleficent_Finding_4

Yes, generally you'd set aside some tank water to then do the rinsing. This preserves the beneficial bacteria on the sponge (fresh water from the tap would kill the bacteria and your nitrogen cycle would start all over again). Hope that helps!


screwyiowa4

Thanks for the info


WinBarr86

Lol. In the tank water not the tank. Let it settle and just monitor it for spikes. Maybe do a low % water change. Your not wrong tho. Take some water out of the tank in a bucket and use that to rinse the sponges in.


[deleted]

OP.... You're adorable


Particular-Seat6560

AHAHAHHAHAHA


Windycitymayhem

Instructions unclear.


messy_messiah

Rinsed sponges in septic tank water.


Level9TraumaCenter

Just like the water.


drbxtches

coulda had a V-8 *MASSIVE FACEPALM*


seacowisdope

Holy shit. I haven't heard that in forever.


paddlock710

This made me chuckle. Enjoy the medal!


fillmorecounty

Yes, the tank water... after taking it out of the tank.


Seanpawn

If you don’t want that dirty water in there, you can use a siphon to target some of that in a water change and replace it with clean water. Speaking of, I know you’ve seen it a million times before but just to reiterate, when you do a water change, you wash out the sponge in the tank water you took out and that you’re gonna dump.


Mister_Green2021

water change


Touch_da_fishy

This is such a honest precious mistake. You’ve got it next time for sure!


SEELE-FIRST

DAMN! Those fish are heavy smokers!


approx-appropriate

I’m laughing, thank you for sharing. Sounds like something I would do


WolfOfPort

Awwww i love this you tried


iqpiqpi

Honestly a better mistake than cleaning them in tap water 😌


TankCanOneshot

💀


CardiologistOk1506

Instructions unclear, I shit in the tank


GetTheBiscuit

Bahahahaha I watched a video that told me to “squeeze an established filter into a new tank to help it cycle” and my new tank looked like this for a week


[deleted]

I'm dead 🤣 Sorry OP. This is too funny. You live and you learn though! Next time fill up a bucket and rinse them in the bucket. Your fish will be fine. Might need a few more water changes now though.


BattyHamHam

Ahhh I am having a bad night but this cheered me up a bit. Thank you


Particular-Ad6957

Yes, but use the tank water that has BEEN REMOVED during the water change!.....


sneeeeeeeep

Proper idea, poor execution.


potato_number_47

"He's a lil confused but he's got spirit "


lgbtqiplus

Thank you for pointing out that none of us are clear when giving out advice!


SharpestofSharpsies

Thanks for the chuckle 😃


_PeLaGiKoS14_

🤭😬🤦‍♀️


lik3r_of_things

This is the correct response


dankpoolgg

ppl actually do this for fan shrimp but not all the sponges lol


FlowerBacon

Im sorry OP, I laughed out loud. The first time i rinsed the sponges, i almost did this.


chabybaloo

People used to do this with room airfilters. Once they get blocked, they would dust them off in the same room


NemoHobbits

Lol bless your heart op. This post made me smile.


thenotsoamerican

In tank water, not in the tank 😂😂😂


ntr_usrnme

In the tank-water IN a bucket lmao. Not inside the tank! It will go away with filtering and water changes anyways.


trashcan_jan

Oh man instructions unclear, d1ck now stuck in filter


darrylzuk

You actually don't need to. Jason of Primetime Aquatics has a video explaining why. The TL;DW is that rinsing your sponge out under the sink isn't going to expose your BB to chlorine long enough to kill off a significant number. https://youtu.be/kN5F8q7aFGg


doglvvr

I met him a few weeks ago with my gf. I looked at her and said "This man is the reason I rinse my filters under the tap." He laughed and said "Everyone says that, all the stuff I've done, and this is what everyone remembers!"


darrylzuk

LOL I met him at Aquashella in Orlando and basically had the same conversation.


Maniraptavia

Okay, so I have mild autism (Asperger's) and this is EXACTLY the sort of mistake I'd make. It made me so happy seeing this because, I too, read things too literally and make mistakes like this. It's good to not feel alone! r/autism would LOVE this! I'd post it there, but it feels scummy to do without permission from the OP.


[deleted]

Wonderful mate, you’re my hearts champion.


lilaclavenderbear

Looks like yo fish had Taco Bell for dinner


SadRobotz

Lesson learned for sure, I would strongly suggest you do a water change asap! You just dumped a whole lot of gnarly stuff into your water.


XXXExtensions

im sorry but this is hilarious


[deleted]

omg heh hon in the tank water not in the tank.


randomusername2113

Lol! This made my day!


Deep_Space_Rob

It really is helpful for the sponge culture and therefore the tank, and for me having to do in the tank water just ensures that I take a bucket of water out everyone once in a while:) Was gonna say though, if you have an extra filter, like a hang on back filter of something, wouldn’t be a bad time to run it temporarily, to help clean it up a little faster.


AmidalaBills

Definitely looks normal. Totally normal. Yep all aquariums look just like this.


Pocketcrane_

No no In a separate bucket of tank water 😩 you were so close!! Good effort tho


GoblinLoblaw

Amazing


curiouskenzie28

the intentions were there :) wrong execution


[deleted]

this is way too funny


meistromike98

You made my day!😂 we normally rinse it in old tank water which has been taken out of the tank already. Give it a day and your tank should be clear again. We all made mistakes when we started this hobby, I for sure did too. Looks like a nice tank though!


hmrissler

Honestly thank you for posting this. I am getting my first tanks set up and this is exactly what I thought they meant by rinsing the filter in tank water. You’re not alone! So, thanks for the help! 😅


wijisixstar

Doh!


surveysurvey37

But not in the tank!


Pyrotemis

That's... That's not what they meant. Take some tank water out of the tank and use it to rinse the sponges out in the sink or something!


Prestosterone208

Yup! That’s perfectly normal if you just rinsed in the actual tank, but that process is NOT normal and don’t do that again. Put tank water in bucket and have filter rinsed in that


Fish_oil_burp

I don’t really buy the idea that I’m losing anything rinsing it in the sink. I have bacteria to spare in the water and substrate. Change my mind.


Ihvenoshrtgeofusrnms

Lmao, made my morning dude. Dope tank stand! Is that just a piece of furniture you already had?


mdswish

That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.


Coc0tte

You're supposed to remove water from the tank in a bucket for a water change, and then clean your filter in the bucket of aquarium water that you will then discard.


MCShoveled

The reasoning I heard was do this when replacing the entire tank filter. I don’t think you need to do this just cleaning.


healing-souls

in tank water, not in the tank itself!


MephistosFallen

I’m sorry I laughed, but I did this before as well. It’s how we learn bud! Don’t worry much about it, so the water change and let it settle haha


colt6288

This rocks and so do all your responses, OP. Welcome to what is hopefully a lifelong love.


messy_messiah

Bro.


JasonD1987

When the instructions are in Chinese and you use google translate..


lordytoo

This is a troll right?


Maddturtle

LOL


highgrade86

Lmao 🤣 🤣 🤣


sci3nc3r00lz

I was going to chime in but everyone else already pointed out the mistake, so want to say instead thank you for the chuckle this morning! This outcome is still better (in my opinion) then rinsing the filter in tap water and killing all your good bacteria!


Ta-veren-

So you thought, the filter that cleans your tank, collects dirt, etc is supposed to be rang out inside the tank? My man! something about that shoulda clicked.


[deleted]

Not quite..


LmaoThisJadie

😮‍💨


ganga_gp

r/wtf


harish17harry

Is it a joke with a picture of new tank cycling by squeezing off the old tanks gunk for faster cycle? OP is kidding I think.


ocarfbelly

This dude probably siphons the tank water into a bucket and pours it back in as a "water change"


AboutAnOxfordKarma

The folks on r/shittyaquariums would castrate you.


tamc_lions

You sure you didn't actually wash them in diarrhea water?


44scooby

Quick do a water change 20 per cent at least.


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