Cannister Filter neglect, plus a few questiosons

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

Nyghtfire

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2010
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Perth, Australia
ok well, tonight about 4 hours ago, i noticed that my cannister filter had absolutely no flow...
so i turned it off, cleaned up the gunk in and around the impeller, and put it back turned it back on, and it shot ALOT of gunk out of the filter.
panic time...
i immediately turned the filter back off (as once the gunk stopped flowing so did the filter) and started a syphon to start draining the water out of the tank...
i then took a good look at my filter, the pipes were that clogged up, it was utterly horrible.
disconnected the filter, removed the pipes out of the tank, and cleaned them all up properly (just using the garden hose and a wire brush, brand new, to clean out the pipes) and cleaned the filter properly.
so now it's all rigged back up, massive water change on the tank.
and all ok.

Lesson learned, don't ever ever neglect filter maintenance, it bit me back with alot of work late at night...

my question is, the gunk that come out of the filter into the tank, will it harm any of my fish? i syphoned as much as possible as i could out of it and a majority of the fish seem ok now but some like my corydoras aren't moving as much as they normally do.

the problem with the flow ended up being the very top layer of filter material, being a 1/8inch thin wool piece, i removed it and chucked it and wallah the filter is now running like new.
Is the wool important in any way to the running of the filter, i've tried to research it and not many answers?

P.s. i apologize for the spelling of questions, very long day, if anyone can change the title, would greatly appreciate it thanks.
 
Yeah filter maintenance is important. Shouldnt hurt them too much. Is the bio still alive? I use two filters at least per tank.The second works as a backup in case one fails. Do maintenance on one, then the next month do a lil maintenence opn the other. Keeps bb alive and your filters working better
 
recently unemployed, or i'd have a couple of eheims on the tank, my cory patrol has lost about 10 members, i love my corys, alot of my fish are currently enjoying there new tank, and will probably pull an allnighter on the others i couldn't fit elsewhere...
 
a suggestion to stop this from happening

take the outflow of your filter and when you turn it back on, let it flow into a 5 g bucket for 5 seconds and all the lovelies will go in the bucket not your tank.

Shut the filter off and put the outflow in the tank and it should be all good when you fire it up.
 
chefjamesscott;5005238; said:
a suggestion to stop this from happening

take the outflow of your filter and when you turn it back on, let it flow into a 5 g bucket for 5 seconds and all the lovelies will go in the bucket not your tank.

Shut the filter off and put the outflow in the tank and it should be all good when you fire it up.

definetly doing it next time.
 
My fish eat the gunk that shoots out of the intake and return lines, but they are Africans and eat everything short of Buicks.
 
You have to have a maintenance schedule. I clean mine every 6 months.
 
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