unhooked canister still hold cycle?

I took a canister filter off of a cycled 75 gallon tank with about a 4 fish load about 2 weeks ago. I cleaned all the hoses and parts other than opening the canister.

I need thoughts on whether a canister that has sat for no more than 2 weeks(maybe only 1 week) at room temp(70deg) would still hold it cycle?

Reason being im fed up with the "live with ich" life and considering trying the copper routine.

any thoughts are welcome

ty

 

I would think that whatever is in the canister will be rancid by now. I suspect that the smell will knock you out when you open it up.

 

Do NOT hook that up to the aquarium before cleaning!!! whatever useful lfie was in there before has used up all the oxygen and starved to death. You know have a lovely ammonia bomb to wipe out somebodies entire tank simply by hooking it up and starting the pump.

 

Yep, you could alter the ENTIRE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM! ;-)

I agree

 

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Clean it thoroughly and carefully for the next time you need it. A gas mask might save you from retching.

 

Agreed with all the above.

In the future, you'll do best by cleaning any filter as soon as it's disconnected. Losing that small amount of bacteria will have no adverse effect on the tank.

 

If you are going to dose copper, you should set up a quarentine tank to do so. Copper will kill all of your beneficial bacteria so you would have to recycle your tank. It will also kill inverts (crabs, snails), and corals.

QT the fish for 30 days past the last sign of ich to let it run its cycle. Lots of water changes in the QT tank. If you are dosing copper, mechanical filtration and water changes is what you use. No sand. 20 gallon tank makes it easy to do the math for dosing and good room to swim.

As for your canister, did you have ceramic or bioball media in there to house beneficial bacteria? As others said, leaving that stagnant starves the bacteria of oxygen and it dies. It decomposes into ammonia and with no biological filtration (beneficial bacteria) to break it into nitrite, it will stay ammonia and stress or kill your fish.

 

lol i just cleaned it out WHEEEEWWWW ROTTEN EGGS!!!!!!! wont make this mistake again!