On Sun, 11 Jun 2006 13:20:46 -0500, dc wrote:

Dick wrote in
:

I have a 10 gallon tank in my bedroom. It has a Whisper Jr filter.
It is quiet. Also the socks do not have charcoal preloaded as I quit
using charcoal years ago. I just clean the sock and leave it in the
sun for a few hours then reuse it.

Why do you leave it in the sun, if you don't mind my asking?

It might be a good idea to avoid drying the filter bag out completely to
ensure you keep the nitrifying bacteria living within healthy. If your
tank is mature than there is plenty of other nitrifying bacteria living
elsewhere, but why bother killing off the ones living in the area of
highest flow?

The sun bleaches the media so it "looks" clean. Also, I have a
notion, that it does some kind of good. When I was a teen ager I used
to remove the gravel and spread it on newspaper in the sun. I don't
remember why. It's just a notion in my head. Since I am happy with
how my 5 tanks are doing, I just thought I would mention this oddity.

dick