Canister filter training wheels....

[Lonewolfblue]

ya I agree not that bad at all. I do mine every 4-5 weeks.

I go every 3-4 weeks myself. I timed myself the last time, 4 minutes and 38 seconds when the filter was running.

And my neighbor takes 12 minutes with his Eheim, lol. I think I got him converted, has some XP4's on order, lol.

 

[Bderick67]

I go every 3-4 weeks myself. I timed myself the last time, 4 minutes and 38 seconds when the filter was running.

And my neighbor takes 12 minutes with his Eheim, lol. I think I got him converted, has some XP4's on order, lol.

well I don't think I'm quite that quick, heck I KnoW I'm not that quick probably closer to 10-12 min for me.

 

[softturtle]

I haven't opened my Xp3's in like 4 months... I just change the **** out of my water.

 

[rallysman]

It takes me less than 5 minutes to do my full maintenance on my XP3. That includes priming and plugging back in.

With water spilled, no matter what

it takes 20 seconds to do a wet/dry while it's running

 

[rallysman]

I go every 3-4 weeks myself. I timed myself the last time, 4 minutes and 38 seconds when the filter was running.

And my neighbor takes 12 minutes with his Eheim, lol. I think I got him converted, has some XP4's on order, lol.

How in the world can you clean an XP3 while it's running? I must be missing something here.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

It's not running, and zero water spilled.

I unplug the filter, lift the lever and slowly pull the hoses off, releasing the pressure in the canister. If done quickly, you will spill some. Trick is to break the seal first, then lift the hoses off, no spillage. Then I take the canister, walk 5 steps to the sink, open the canister top and pull the baskets out, setting them in the sink. I pull the sponges out of the bottom basket and give a quick rinse in the tank water that's left in the canister, then place them back into the basket. If my ceramic cylinders don't look mucky, I leave them alone. Then I rinse the fine pad quickly under the sink. When everything is back in the baskets, I dump the canister into the sink and quickly rinse out the housing, put the baskets back in, and the top back on. Walk 5 steps again and place canister under the tank, put hose unit back on, push lever down to prime. I wait til I hear the water stop flowing, then plug back in. Filter shoots out bubbles for like 20 seconds, then stops and all is running. All done in 4 minutes and 38 seconds.

 

[Nic]

i actually like my cascade 1500?? its there biggest model its not that bad of a filter use it for chemipure and purigen on ocaision they are a good bang for the buck imo

 

[Lonewolfblue]

i actually like my cascade 1500?? its there biggest model its not that bad of a filter use it for chemipure and purigen on ocaision they are a good bang for the buck imo

For an inexpensive filter, I've heard good comments about the Cascades. I've never had any experience with them though, so I don't know the steps on them for maintenance.

 

[elevatethis]

The in-line valves that Eheim provides with their canisters make cleaning a breeze. I have the Classic 2217 model.

I clean the impeller about once a month, but otherwise I don't really touch the media. I'll rinse the filter pads out every now and then, its been the lowest-maintenance piece of equipment I've bought for a tank ever. I also use ACs and as much as I like them, I think they are messier to clean than the Eheim canister by far...

I have heard the that Renas have individual trays for the layers of media...is that true? I can see that making cleaning really easy...

 

[ewurm]

I guess I have no complaint about the cascade so far. It has been decent. I am less than a week in though.