How often do you guys wash filters?

[DDK]

Bro, even if you fed your fish in an every other day basis, big cichlids poo a lot and the waste go to the filters, I dont get you guys what you mean?.....leaving a canister too much time without serviece would eventually lead to it becoming a nitrate factory, after one year I asure you it will, although Im sure it would happen much before.

Then how do you explain how my nitrates are 20 ppm in my 75g with a 16 inch jag thats has a fluval 405 that hasnt been cleaned in over than a year?

If you cant comprehend you remove waste the waste during gravel vacs/waterchanges and it doesnt all get caked into the filter then I'm at a loss of words for you.

 

[rodger]

Here is a couple of examples of MY not needing to service cans very often. It is all based on feeding.
^ I have a sump on a 240 that uses two 7" 100 micron socks to catch all the waste that comes from the two overflows. All of the water runs through these sooner or later, just like all the water eventually runs through a cannister. Obviously there is no water pressure on these socks from a pump. Do you run 100 micron pads in your pressureized can? I am guessing most of you don't. I change these socks on average of once every 5 months. I say that because I will be changing for the first time since I moved. They aren't overflowing, they aren't losing flow. Why? BECAUSE I DONT OVERFEED. If you guys that NEED to clean your cans monthly, or whatever crazy number, take them apart a week after servicing, you will see that most of the stuff is unbeaten food. Maybe your fish crunches most of his pellets. I bet they swallow about 1/2. I used to overfeed. I know what you will see. The reason they don't swallow it all is you feed them bigger pellets then they should have. If you feed filets or live food, you won't clean a can very often. They eat it all.
^ Good quality biological filter media can process around 6 grams of fish waste per liter per day. A 2 lb fish will produce about 15 grams of waste per day. So an Eheim 2262 can process the waste of about 16 lb of fish. That is fish waste, not food. Process into nitrate, not hold.
I hope this makes sense to you. If you are getting much gunk from your filters you are overfeeding or feeding the wrong food.

Sent from my SCH-S960L using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Armand]

Then how do you explain how my nitrates are 20 ppm in my 75g with a 16 inch jag thats has a fluval 405 that hasnt been cleaned in over than a year?

If you cant comprehend you remove waste the waste during gravel vacs/waterchanges and it doesnt all get caked into the filter then I'm at a loss of words for you.

I syphon my gravel on weekly basis, seriousy my solo flowerhorn produces so much waste that after two months my canister is full of debrits, it is impossible to let it on any longer, i feed him twice a day and there is a wet dry besides a canister running in his tank.

 

[Fishysweet]

I spray my 125 gal hob filters out about daily sometimes every other day and replace them every 2-3 weeks.( im thinking about a fx6) and on my other tanks I spray them out once a week and change every 2-3 weeks. I feed twice a day

 

[Pazzoman]

Have an fx5 on a 40 gallon breeder for now so haven't yet cleaned it out yet...almost did today. Literally unhooked the hoses the usual spill of water that comes out from the hose on to the floor...and than I just stopped hooked it back up and fed the fish lol

 

[DDK]

Have an fx5 on a 40 gallon breeder for now so haven't yet cleaned it out yet...almost did today. Literally unhooked the hoses the usual spill of water that comes out from the hose on to the floor...and than I just stopped hooked it back up and fed the fish lol

lmfao i been there before

 

[JayC74]

I rinse the foam inserts in my wetdry about once every 4 or 5 days. My AC's get rinsed about every 10 to 14 days now since i have low stocked solitary cichlid setups in my smaller tanks. When these tanks were full of geos and severums, they would eat a lot of soft sinking pellets which were messier for my filters. So every 5 to 7days worked best then. We all need to figure out what cleaning schedule works best for our individual setups. My fish always look better and respond to feedings best when this gunk is removed with regularity. BB is everywhere in my setups outside the media i rinse, so rinsing with tapwater isn't a problem

 

[d3r]

I have been running a Fluval G6 on a 120gallon tank with 8piranhas. (Insane amounts of poop) i have yet to crack it open and wash it out after 3months.
I do pull the mechanical cartridge and clean it every week. and empty/refill the chemical cartridge every 3-4weeks. all my nitrate/nitrites/ammonia parameters are fine.

The G6 has a digital screen showing current water flow. by then end of the week its down about 5%...spray off the mech cartridge and it jumps back to 100%.

i wil probably open it up at the 6month mark and check it out...I'm nervous about what i might find hahah

 

[dogofwar]

There's an ongoing debate about whether infrequently cleaned canisters (or other filters for that matter) produce excess nitrates or not.

I've still got one canister (and FX5) running in my 50+ tank fishroom (and a couple of pumps running dumps on my large tanks) but the rest are run by air. Canisters are a PITA to clean...which means that I don't clean them frequently...which means that they accumulate detritus in them.

Some would argue that the detritus is "inert" and doesn't contribute to nitrates. I'd argue just the opposite... If the stuff that accumulates in a canister filter over a couple of months was spread across the bottom of a tank, I think more folks would feel this way. But out of sight (in a plastic canister) is often out of mind.

I have a box filter (with fluff and some gravel to weigh it down) and a sponge on most tanks. I run the boxes with lots of air so that they achieve lots of flow through the fluff. I clean them at least weekly (replace the fluff...although I guess I could rinse and re-use it) to remove the poop, uneaten food and other gunk that accumulates in them. If that stuff doesn't break down into nitrates, there is less waste in my tanks and healthier fish. I also, of course, do regular (usually weekly) water changes.

I keep the air relatively low on most sponge filters to reduce their use as mechanical filters. They'll accumulate a bunch of stuff in them over time if you create a lot of flow over them. But I'd rather clean a box filter than a sponge (although I clean boxes about once a month as well).

Pre-filters can cut down on the amount of gunk / frequency of cleaning needed for canisters and HOBs but they can cut down on flow and also need to be cleaned.

Bottom line: Clean your filters early and often!

Matt

 

[soupa2]

this topic can be debate on, no matter what everyone's says there is always one way better than the other... one would like it this way and the other says it differently... i personally have 6 canister filters and i have painters tape on each filter labeled the date when i clean them.. i also have a log book which listed what was performed during each filter cleaning and what was put into so No Confusion during media cleaning or replacing.. @ the End ENJOY Monster Keeping...