Cleaning the charcoal bag in my filter.?

Question

Hello, today I was cleaning out my filter. Well, I put the charcoal bag in water and the water turned black. I cleaned everything and whiped off the charcoal bag since it had gunk on it. My question is, is should I not have washed the bag? Also, When I turned it on in my aquarium sutff came out like the black stuff. Is this bad for the fish? If it is bad how should I clean my filter then? THANKS

Answer 1

Is the charcoal new? Rinse it well before you put it in the filter so that the dust doesn't discolor the water. It shouldn't hurt the fish though, so don't worry.

Answer 2

Make sure you rinse your filter cartridges until the water runs clear. All that is is dust from the carbon, I don't think its bad for the fish but it'll make your water cloudy.

:-)

Answer 3

before putting the charcoal bag in the filter just run water over it in a sink then put it in the filter.  That's what I do when I do my aquarium and I never got black aquarium water.  You just have to rinse some of the charcoal dust off in the sink beforehand.