Cleaning a used dried up sponge filter

[RyanU]

Hello everybody,  I have a sponge filter that was in another tank that I took down. I let the sponge filter dry out completely and had it setting on a shelf. I want to clean it and sterilize it and put it on my main tank to grow some bacteria for a new tank. What would be the best way to safely clean it?

TIA

[Tihshho]

Soaking it in hot water should loosen up all the waste. Nothing should be alive in terms of parasites or anything nasty, so you don't need to do anything intense to clean. Hot water out of the tap should be enough, you don't need to boil it. 

[RyanU]

OK. Thank you. I was going to set it up on my Cory fry tank. 

[Guppysnail]

Things like daphnia, hydra etc can cyst and exist in a dry state. For me not an issue but some prefer not to transfer if they exist. Hydrogen peroxide is very effective and cheap at deteriorating the walls of the cysts. I personally just rinse debris off in warm water and use. 

[RyanU]

Thanks @Guppysnailfor the input. I took the filter apart and soaked it for about 20 minutes in hot water. I had some Cory eggs hatch a couple days ago and I herbs them in a breeder box with filter material on the bottom. Lately thy rest of the fish in my tank are swimming around the breeder box. I think they are bumping it to try and see Wendy's in there. I want to move them to a smaller 5 gallon to not worry about it

[Bullsnark]

I’m curious as to why you wanted to make sure the sponge was clean. Did you suspect a pathogen or dangerous pest in the previous tank?  That’s generally the exact opposite of what I would try to do

[RyanU]

I was just wondering because I was putting it in a grow out tank for fry. I wanted to make sure it was clean to not introduce anything to them. Also because I had all that stuff stored in the garage. 

[Tihshho]

On 9/15/2021 at 10:00 AM, Bullsnark said:

I’m curious as to why you wanted to make sure the sponge was clean. Did you suspect a pathogen or dangerous pest in the previous tank?  That’s generally the exact opposite of what I would try to do

You generally don't want to move unknowns into a tank, especially when it comes to hardware that has been sitting out. Even more so if it's been either sitting and you don't remember what tank it was pulled from or if it's been sitting and possibly been exposed to other things outside of the tank due to where it was stored. 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Tihshho

[Bullsnark]

On 9/15/2021 at 9:37 AM, Tihshho said:

You generally don't want to move unknowns into a tank, especially when it comes to hardware that has been sitting out. Even more so if it's been either sitting and you don't remember what tank it was pulled from or if it's been sitting and possibly been exposed to other things outside of the tank due to where it was stored. 

OK I gotcha. I keep my fish stuff in a tote right now, so it’s not open to everything in the rest of the house. If it was in my garage I would probably throw it away before I would ever use it again because of everything that happens in my garage, so I see what you’re getting at.