The Seachem Pond Matrix will help reduce the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in your tank water or pond water.
For this biological filter media to remain effective, you need to occasional rinse the pebbles in order to prevent the pores from getting closed.
Even with regular maintenance, the pores will eventually get so clogged up that you will need to recharge or regenerate Pond Matrix in order to get it working efficient again.
You can take a look at this Aquarium Blueprints’ guide to see how you can properly recharge and regenerate the Pond Matrix.
Should you recharge and regenerate Pond Matrix using an oven?
One of the ways you can recharge and regenerate Pond Matrix is by heating to the pebbles in an oven. The extreme heat will burn off the organic waste buildup deep within the pores.
If you aren’t careful, however, then the Pond Matrix pebbles may end up exploding, which will cause damage to your oven. To prevent this from happening, you should cover the filter media.
Fortunately, there is a safer method to recharging or regenerating the Pond Matrix.
Should you use bleach to recharge or regenerate Pond Matrix?
Another way you can recharge or regenerate the Seachem Pond Matrix is by using bleach.
Bleach will help dissolve the organic wastes deep within the pores.
With that said, getting rid of the bleach is troublesome. Not to mention that, if bleach gets in your or pond through Pond Matrix, then it will cause all sorts of major problems.
Therefore, we recommend that you avoid using bleach for the recharging and regenerating process.
How to recharge and regenerate Pond Matrix with hot water
The safest method to unclogging the pores of the pebbles is by using hot water.
In order to recharge or regenerate Pond Matrix with hot water, you can try taking the following steps;
1. To begin, take the Pond Matrix out of your fish tank or fish pond if you haven’t done so already.
2. Put the filter media pebbles in a container that can hold hot water. We like to use a ceramic bowl for this procedure.
3. Pour hot water into the container with the Pond Matrix.
4. Use a clean utensil (like a chopstick, spoon or fork) to stir the pebble around for a few minutes to create water pressure that will help unclog the pores.
5. Wait for the water to cool down to a lukewarm temperature.
6. Carefully pour out the water from the container.
7. You can repeat steps 3, 4, 5 and 6 over and over again to make your Pond Matrix as clean as possible.
8. After cleaning the pebbles, let it completely dry out.
9. Once the Pond Matrix has dried, you can put it back into your fish tank or fish pond.
10. The recharging and regeneration process will kill all the beneficial bacteria living on the pebbles.
Thus, it can take weeks or months for the filter media to operate optimally as the beneficial bacteria will need time to recolonize.
To speed up the recolonization, you can try using a product like Seachem Stability, which will directly add live bacteria to your tank water or pond water.