2nd hand filter do's and don'ts

[Ruud]

A friend that stepped out of the hobby gifted me a quite new SunSun 1200L external filter, bit big for my 90L Cube aquarium but hey ... can't complain about a gift plus I want to mainly stock with L numbers and Cory's who don't mind a bit of flow.

Anyway I picked up the filter yesterday and it's quite dirty. I have cleaned it all with fresh water, just cleaned out the gunk etc and rinsed all the filter material. There are sponges in there plus a few mesh bags of ceramic filtration material. 

Can I safely re-use the filter materials after rinsing it with clean water? Or is it better to renew the sponges and ceramic material? The filter hasn't been used for over a year. 

Thank you
Ruud

 

[Guppysnail]

Hi. Always cool to get goodies. Use grocery store hydrogen peroxide to saturate and clean everything including the hoses. Let it set for 15 minutes. It rinses clean and leaves zero residue. It is even more affective than bleach for certain organisms because it takes a shorter time …and breaks down to just water in the equipment. 99 cents a bottle or so.  At that point you are completely safe to reuse everything. Use aquarium silicone on all seals no matter how you clean it. They dry and crack without it. Aquatop sells silicone inexpensive on Amazon. 

Edited November 16, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Ruud]

Thanks @Guppysnail that is super super helpful! I need to get hydro peroxide anyway to soak a piece of wood in my other tank that is full with black beard algae. Just need to figure out where to get it here in Spain, maybe pharmacies sell it.