# Sterilizing ceramic bio material.



## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

I have those little white ceramic cylinders in my filters. Will boiling them be okay?


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## petlaur (Apr 21, 2010)

Don't know about boiling but couldn't one sterilize them by putting them in a container with diluted household bleach for several minutes and then rinsing them off well.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

petlaur said:


> Don't know about boiling but couldn't one sterilize them by putting them in a container with diluted household bleach for several minutes and then rinsing them off well.


 That is my plan b. I thought boiling would ensure every nook and cranny was reached.


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't know why I do this - I'm sure I read it somewhere or I could just have easily made it up - but I boil all my ceramic media about once every 8-12 months. I tear down my entire filter and do whatever maintenance is required to the motor, change o-rings if necessary, etc. and then I set my canning pots on the stove and boil media all afternoon!!! I've been doing this for 10 years or so and it seems to work for me, but like I said - I have no idea why I started doing this many, many moons ago. The tank will go through a mini cycle, but I minimize this with the two or three sponge filters I run in each of my tanks.

So to answer your question, yes - it's fine to boil your ceramic media if your intention is to kill everything on it, and in it


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## pieces71 (Apr 21, 2010)

petlaur said:


> Don't know about boiling but couldn't one sterilize them by putting them in a container with diluted household bleach for several minutes and then rinsing them off well.


I would prepare boiling it or just pouring boiling water on it in a container much safer and easy than using bleach


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

You can boil them, or bleach them, or even both if you want to be sure you kill everything. Everything I bleach, i also soak in declorinator (water conditioner) after, then rinse them off.

Steve


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