NEED HELP WITH FILTER CLEANING please

[lakersfreak]

OK, I have a saltwater tank which I started 4 months ago. Yesterday I decided to clean the filter ( canister Fluval 204 ) for the first time. I removed the hoses took the base and cleaned the inside. Upon reinstalling the filter I noticed a problem. As soon as I turned the filter back on a lot of crap was coming out of the blower hose. I think it was the frozen brine shrimp that I occasionally feed, however it was white rather than pink/red. It clouded my whole tank, took about 30 minutes to clear up. What can I do to clean that and to avoid it next time? Should I be worried about my fish and inverts? Could it possibly be something other than the brine shrimp?
THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP.

 

[tecwzrd]

Had you added any media to the filter without properly rinsing it off first? If so then this is probably what you were seeing. The dust of gac and some other media can be harmful to fish/inverts so if that was the case make sure you fully rinse your media trays before adding to the filter.

 

[hackteck]

i have the fluval 204 also , ive been contimplating filling the top tray with lr rubble what types of media do you have in yours?

 

[lakersfreak]

I don't know the names of the media I got, however I have the white (looks like tube), the black charcoal stuff and the sponge. I did not change anything, but rinsed all media. I think it was the brine shrimp stuck in the valves and when water ran through it, it blew out all the old shrimp. It's been 2 days everything looks OK except for my emerald crab, which died yesterday.

 

[melosu58]

First of all welcome to AA. Are you feeding that much Brine shrimp that it would collect like that. It`s hard to believe that it`s all brine. If it is then you should cut back.

 

[kwan]

I have similar crap coming out of my return hose after cleaning. It does look like brine shrimp, but I am sure it is not. I think it might be crap built up within the hoses and when you re-prime your filter, the pressure just pushes it out. I normally prevent this from blowing into the water column by putting a net in front of the return before switching the filter back on. So any crap will be trapped in the net.

 

[lakersfreak]

Let me tell you what I got.
2 firefish
2 pistol shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 pajama cardinal
1 molly
1 scooter blemmy
2 clown (nemo)
1 chocolate starfish
1 serpent starfish

I feed them one frozen ball of brine shrimp. They seem to kill it in 2 minutes, but some end up getting sucked through the filter.

Well I guess what I can do is next time I clean I will take my blower pipe out of the tank and into a buket, thus releasing all that crap into a bucket. However this will result in a 50% deduction of my water. I know I'm supposed to change 25% so will taking more water out do any damage to the water.

ONCE AGAIN THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP GUYS.