Seachem Matrix reuse???

[dottybackss]

As the title what do I have to do before reusing about 1L Seachem matrix that had been used in a freshwater planted tank for 7 months for a 30g Fish only tank?

[Naekuh]

@ 13dollars for 1L i would not even bother reusing it, and just buy a new bottle.

 

But if you absolutely must reuse it, i would probably soak it in H2O2  hydrogen peroxide, to kill any organics on it, and then rince it in distilled. 

But you still have issues of it may leech whatever ammonia was stuck in it from your aqua soil. 

 

So again its probably in your best interest just to buy a new bottle, as you really cant recycle the bacteria from fresh to salt or vice versa.  

[Clown79]

I would buy new matrix for a sw tank. 

 

 

[mcarroll]

On 4/4/2019 at 3:11 PM, dottybackss said:

As the title what do I have to do before reusing about 1L Seachem matrix that had been used in a freshwater planted tank for 7 months for a 30g Fish only tank?

Unless it looks like it was collecting dirt while it was in there, it should be fine to use as-is.   I wouldn't even rinse it off when I switched it to saltwater if it were me.  

 

Anything problematic (assuming the worst for no reason) is unlikely to survive the switch to seawater salinity.  Most things living there should be useful vs harmful even if they were to survive into the reef though.

 

On the other hand, if the media looks really dirty, rinse it off in some tank water and then use it.  Still no worries.

 

If it won't rinse clean, throw it out and get new.  It's not worth a lot of bother.