Cleaning salt water filters

[Gavin1274]

Hello everyone, I'm here posting about a fluval filter and a protein skimmer I bought from people off offer up and craigslist. I'm trying to start my very first aquarium and baught both of those items from people at a very good price. I havent put water in the tank or anything yet. But I was curious if it would be okay to clean and rinse the two filters with tap water and let them dry if that would be okay for when the time comes to put them in the tank? Or is tap water always a no go no matter what. Thank you all

 

[jeffchapok]

I always rinse my filter with tap water.

 

[Peace River]

Hello everyone, I'm here posting about a fluval filter and a protein skimmer I bought from people off offer up and craigslist. I'm trying to start my very first aquarium and baught both of those items from people at a very good price. I havent put water in the tank or anything yet. But I was curious if it would be okay to clean and rinse the two filters with tap water and let them dry if that would be okay for when the time comes to put them in the tank? Or is tap water always a no go no matter what. Thank you all

Congratulations on your new tank! Rinsing with tap water is fine if it is dried. Additionally, you may want to use bleach or vinegar for more thorough cleaning.

If I'm rinsing off something that came out of my established tank and I need to rinse it off before I put it back in then I will rinse it in RO water.

 

[Gavin1274]

Congratulations on your new tank! Rinsing with tap water is fine if it is dried. Additionally, you may want to use bleach or vinegar for more thorough cleaning.

If I'm rinsing off something that came out of my established tank and I need to rinse it off before I put it back in then I will rinse it in RO water.

Thank you for the reply!! So tap water is good for what I'm doing and rinsing for the new tank to be established? And then after that rinse with RO water?

 

[Peace River]

Thank you for the reply!! So tap water is good for what I'm doing and rinsing for the new tank to be established? And then after that rinse with RO water?

Yes. There may be some variation to that for specifics, but that is a good rule of thumb. For example, if you were to pull your skimmer off line to give it a thorough cleaning, then you may choose to clean it in tap water and then rinse it in RO before you add it back to the tank. Some may consider this overkill, but IMO it is limiting risks.