How Often Do You Clean Your Filters?

[ellwa]

Evening Everyone...

Was just sitting down, watching the world go by, and thinking about how my discus have been spawning every other day, in the community tank[They haven't gotten past about 36hours or eggs before they disappear].. I got to thinking about how often I clean my cannister.

I was thinking that when I had more time, I was cleaning it out more regularly, cleaning the hoses on the filter every 4 weeks, and the cannister every two weeks or so.

I cleaned it[Eheim 2224+Pondmaster 5W UV] this afternoon, after probably two months. I didn't do anything other than run the water through some fine wool[cushion stuffing] a few times, from bucket-cannister and back again a few times, and a rinse of the noodles and substrat in the old dirty water to get the larger debris out.

The amount of build up in the cannister was all suspended solid waste type stuff, but it wasn't caked on the walls or anything, and after about 2minutes settling, it looked like miso soup 2 minutes after you stir it as the content of the fluid sinks to the bottom.

I wonder.. What am I better off doing? I think its probably better to leave it, and get the filter flow not moving so fast[in my fairly heavily planted discus tank], preventing alot of turbulance through the tank, clearer water, and slower flow rates, and just clean the filter when there is a noticable drop it water flow.

I had a bit of drama with a serious CO2 overdose last week[my first major discus drama, only lost 2 tetras, and my whiptail], but otherwise, my fish are healthy as, no drama from the bristlenose or the gold spot plec and the discus, and all my tetras are still alive and swimming.

How often do you clean your filters? should i clean mine more often? [40G volume.]

Discus.

[RJ_Archer]

yea hey i usely clean mine liek every 2 weeks but then again i have to filters on the tank.

[Nathan]

i clean my cannister filter every 1-2 months.

sure by then the flow rate is a bit lower but i can live with that if my discus are spawning each week and the water is crystal clear!

[Marinemom]

I clean my filters on my discus tank every six weeks to two months. Discus like very clean pristine water so I want to make sure that thier filters are clean as well as doing thier water changes.

Marinemom

[jim]

Geez...I did not know need to clean the cannister that often..

I have not clean them for like half an year...

although I have 2 canisters for my 4 ft

[ellwa]

I wasnt trying to suggest how often you clean them, I am more curious how often you clean yours?

I find my water quality is better with a slightly slower flow rate.

I wouldn't mind finding a way to attatch my tw- stage water filter[.5micron] to my aquarium to filter it nice and slow, though...

[Ben]

A sign that the filter media needs to be cleaned is when the flow rate starts to slow.

Remember to wash the media in tank water!

[Hearthemchainsdiscus]

Hello ellwa,

I have a Fluval 404 in my 75 gallon and and fluval 205 in my 20 gallon tank. I change the carbon and zeo carb every month and the biomax every 6 months. I stagger the biomax changes on a 3 month basis so I keep a good amount of bacteria in the filter. When I clean my foam filters and the internal components I use regular tap water and my fish seem not to mind at all. I would recommend cannister filters.

[FishLover]

Why would you change the biomax?

[Discus Dan]

I have an external filter which I clean every 4-6 weeks and an internal powerhead filter that I clean every 4 weeks aswell. I replace the filter wool every clean but leave everything else alone.

[enigmatic]

Does anyone here clean the to/from hoses that go into the tank from the filter?

I clean my filter every 4-5 weeks but whenever I prime it again, I get some detrious which can only come from the hoses.

If you clean the hoses, how do you do it? The curly brush I have isn't long enough to do the whole length of the hose.

[ILLUSN]

I'm a freak and clean my canister religiously. i change the fine filter wool every 2 weeks and every month I clean all the substrate (with tank water) and scrub the hoses (with tap water) and run vaseline over all seals and o rings.

[ILLUSN]

If you want to clean the tubes buy a tube cleaning brush bout a meter long from any LFS and just work from both ends of the tubes.

[martraci]

me,
wool weekly (toss it out no matter what is reccomended + have an awesome hookup free!)

35PPI black sponge weekly (shit builds up here quickly, restricting water flow + wool becomes dirty faster without this)

15PPI blue sponge fortnightly (alot of plant debris here + again the flow rate)

noodles (try 6 months...yeah ill think about it in 6 months)

bio-max/gran (neva neva land)

i mean honestly, if your replacing/cleaning your filter wool regulary how hard is it to clean these other sponges

[martraci]

also, i do tubes with paper towel and tv aerial ;)

[Bill T]

I clean my filters when the flow rate starts to reduce.
Keep up the water changes!

[Suc_Sid]

I'm gonna sound lazy here...

I clean my canister about 2-3 times per year (just whenever i feel like it), and my internal about every 2 months.

I never change any of the media in my filter. i clean the bio product (matrix) in tank water and just blast the filter wool and sponges with high pressure hose. I don't use any carbon.

my discus seem ok, and like yours Ellwa, i have a couple of pairs which spawn semi-regularly (usually between sept - feb), but the fry never last too long :(

S_S

[Hearthemchainsdiscus]

Hello FishLover,

It is good to replace the biomax every 6 months. I stage this process so every 3 months I'm adding half new biomax. This process will maximize the amount of beneficial bacteria I will keep in my filter. Replacing all the biomax at one time would not be good, and never replacing it wouldn't be good either.

[FishLover]

I have my bio media in there for years and never need to replace them.

Here is another way to reduce the cleaning need for cannister filters:

I put some sponge onver the inlets of my 304 and 404. I also remove the round ball in the inlet to give it more water flow. This way I only have to clean the sponges once a week. That keeps the flow rate going and I don't have to clean the filters for months.

[Hearthemchainsdiscus]

thanks for the tip FishLover, I will do the intake ball mod, that's a good idea. Why does fluval recommend that you change the biomax every 6 months then??? The biomax does seem to brake down overtime., ie less porous material?