Canister Filter Maintainence

Dear Friends:

I have a few issues that I want to bring up regarding canister filters. A lot of emphasis has been placed on regular water changes.... but what about the canister? It will be nice if we can share some good practices to keep the water clean and fish happy.

Issue 1:
I was reading about the misfortunate Chris MacMahon went through with the power failure and bad bacterial blooming...how long does this process usually take place? Is it detected by an ammonia surge?

Issue 2:
I replace my cotton monthly and it is usually quite dirty. What is a good compromise between removing wastes (i.e. opening up filter and removing cotton) and not disturbing the bacterial colony?

Issue 3:
Finally, how often do you change your substrate? I've heard numerous opinions and cannot find consistency... (obviously depends on manufacturer but in general principles....)

Thanks for sharing your views....

skoom

I thought that bacteria could live quite nicely for a few days without being on. Could be wrong ... however I thought the only major concern was not to clean filter material with straight tap water as this will kill the good bacteria.

Quote:

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I thought that bacteria could live quite nicely for a few days without being on.

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I dont think it can because it needs oxygen

Your right, I started googling after my reply ... after they use up the oxygen , they start dying ... sounds like after the 4 hour mark you might have to start worrying.

I am using Eheim substrate pro. The instruction says it should be replace every half a year.
Most of the good bacterial colony are living within the substrate, so replace cotton won't have any impact on the bacterial colony.
But for me, cleaning canister is easy. Cleaning the tubing is a pain in the axx, as I also have UV hook up with my canister. I really hate to unplug all the tubes and wash them (Eheim tube is quite expensive, can not afford to replace them every 3 months). Tubes are also hard to clean as some of them are quite long. Hope somesone can help me also.

i never replace my efisubstrate **too expensive** for 2yrs ...everything seems to be alright. i agree on how hard to clean the tube, what i did is make a 'ball' from filter wool and chuck into the tube and run it through with water ...do it several times and **voila** brand spanking new tube :)

Thanks dreamer for the tip. I normally use wire and tight a small piece of clothe on one end. Push the wire in from one end of the tube and pull it out from the other end.

But there was once, that peice of clothe unattached from the wire and stucked in the middle of the tube :evil: . I end up replace the tube and killed most of the good bacteria :oops: (it took me too long to buy the new tube).

I will try your way next time, hope it works.

dreamer, you are far too practical man ! Good tip again !