Filration Cleaning & General

[Natural_Born_Killer]

For those of you that use external canister filters I am curious to find out how often do you clean them?

Currently running two AquaPro 2 filters on my 120. I tend to clean one each month.

Also do weekly water changes of 50%

What do you do?

 

[haynchinook334]

With both of my FX5's i clean the pads once every 3 weeks. But, i replace 1/2 the bio max every 2 months.

 

[LowCel]

I clean my eheim wet/dry canister about once every four or five months. I clean my xp3's about once every two or three months. I clean my other eheim canisters about once every two or three months as well.

On my 210 I do a water change once or twice a week and on my 55 I change the water about once every two weeks.

 

[tcarswell]

With both of my FX5's i clean the pads once every 3 weeks. But, i replace 1/2 the bio max every 2 months.

Seriously? Does you bio ever crash changing out that bio max? I am not criticizing I am curious as I have some Bio max I have been running for three years straight. And I got two extra boxes of fluval bio max sitting on my aquarium stuff shelf.

 

[Natural_Born_Killer]

When you clean out your canister do you also rinse/clean the biomedia or do you leave it alone?

 

[LowCel]

I usually leave mine alone but about once every six months I will give it a quick rinse in tank water.

 

[abiddle]

For cannisters I have 2 Rena XP3's, 1 Fluval 405, and a Magnum 350

I try and clean them all once a month.
I do rinse everything off, and check/clean the impeller with the thought that my HOB filters will make up any temporary loss in bio filtration.

I also use Fluval Bio Max and have never changed it out.
I load my canisters up with Bio Max and do not use charcoal or other chemical filtration.

I do 1/3 water changes every Saturday.

My methods were developed from some of the info I have found on this site.
Hope this helps.

 

[ward1066]

when the flow is greatly reduced,,,,,,, I primarily use mine for bio media and maybe one small sponge so sometime it can go up to a year. If you have A LOT of biomedia the solids usually get broken down fast and doesnt have time to clog up. If it does then that means I am overfeeding.

 

[Natural_Born_Killer]

This is going to sound a bit daft...but how do you actually tell?

I changed my cleaning cycle a bit. I have to Aqua Pro 2 Canisters. One was cleaned in Late January and the other was last cleaned in late February so I am planning on cleaning the first one again this week.

But how can you tell if your flow is not as good?

 

[fishman61]

I do weekly 50% water changes and I clean my xp3's every month, I rinse out the sponges and the bag of carbon. I replace the fine cotton batting every month. The carbon, lasts several months