AC Filter Maintenance

[fishieperson321]

I have an AC 30 on my 29 gallon and every time I go to remove the sponge for cleaning, all of the debris on the bottom of the sponge ends up in the bottom of the filter and flowing back into the tank rather than me removing it with the sponge. I turn off the filter when I clean it, but it doesn't seem to help. What can I do to prevent this and does everyone else have this problem?

Daniel

 

[misplacedsooner]

yep, if i do it like that it will. try removing the whole filter and take to the sink, remove basket and rinse the inside out and put it back on the tank. do what you need to do to sponge/media and return the basket to the filter.

 

[Mattyou]

Take it off the tank, just dont rinse the Bio Matrix or you will kill the bacteria. Take the Bio bag and drop it in the tank till your done.

 

[elevatethis]

Mine spits crud back into the tank every time, I've been running ACs for years and have yet to figure out a way to keep it from happening. It usually clears within minutes so I don't think its really that big a deal, but I know how anal some keepers can be, so....

I suppose that if you clean your filter during a water change, you could run the filter on the bucket of tank water that you've just removed for a few minutes before you put the filter back on the tank itself, that way it spews the leftovers into the bucket before going back on the tank.

 

[fishieperson321]

Its not that big of a deal for me, but by the time everything is sucked back up, its time for a cleaning again. That is why I thought I would post this to give not only me but everyone an idea of how to stop this.

Daniel

 

[itzacraze]

well unplug the filter remove it take it to the sink and clean the whole thing out.... this means its clean lol just dont rinse the bio balls with sink water rinse them with used tank water

 

[DaveB]

I take mine to the sink but sometimes I still end up getting some debris that it spits out. The best way to deal with this is to just hold a large net in front of the outflow when you start it back up. This catches most of the debris, provided it's a fine enough mesh.