Filration Cleaning & General

[ward1066]

So basically it sums down to this:

Canisters can be cleaned roughly every 2-4 months.
Floss or carbon should be replaced more frequently, but sponges or media don't.

Cleaning with tank water is good, tap water depends on the quality of the water that you have where you are.

Did I get this straight?

Right, I never clean with tap. I think aged tankwater is less stressful on your bacteria. Think of it as a little eco system. Some people rinse sponges etc in tap as long as they dont mess with the media which is probably OK but if your tap has any chlorine in it it can stay in the sponge even if you wring it out,,then it can possibly kill some of the bacteria colonies when water starts flowing through the canister again.

 

[ward1066]

I check the out flow simply by putting my fingers in front of the outflow tube to check how powerful it is coming out of my Rena XP Canister. You will notice the difference, if you check it right after a cleaning, and then check it before a cleaning.

One problem I have with the canisters, is my hoses seem to get a lot of lime/or calcium (floaters) build up in them. After I clean the canister and restart a lot of floaters shoot out of the outflow tube.

How do you control that? I have cleaned my hoses before, but it is a pain taking them off, cleaning, and then reconnecting. Cleaning them was the toughest part, I used a coat hanger, and just ran water, and spun the coat hanger inside of the hose to knock loose the build up.

some stuff will come out of the canister when you start it up,thats normal, one way to minimize it is to toss out the water in your canister when you clean it, but dont rinse with tap. just let it refill with tank water. I have never cleaned a hose in all my years of having canisters, I leave the crud in the hoses alone.

 

[Natural_Born_Killer]

some stuff will come out of the canister when you start it up,thats normal, one way to minimize it is to toss out the water in your canister when you clean it, but dont rinse with tap. just let it refill with tank water. I have never cleaned a hose in all my years of having canisters, I leave the crud in the hoses alone.

Really?? You've never cleaned a hose?

Thats great to hear as I HATE that part...!

 

[shelbyzman]

I haven't clean my canister's hoses once in 5 years.

 

[Natural_Born_Killer]

Wow, you two don't know just how happy I am to hear that

That is going to make cleaning everything just so much more pleasant.

 

[ihavegills]

Since you two are saying you don't clean hoses, then that's good enough for me, I won't clean them anymore either. It is such a pain.

However, I do empty all the water out of my canister, and fill with treated tap water each time i clean.

Thanks for the info.

 

[shelbyzman]

I definitely don't see a need to clean the hoses......unless they get really clogged which I doubt will happen (hasn't happen to me, yet )

 

[fishman61]

When I start my xp3's up, I put a fine mesh dip net over tube and it catches all the stuff from the hoses before it goes into the rest of the aqaurium. I only cleaned my hoses once, that was years ago, I can still recall how much of a pain it was to do.

 

[ihavegills]

When I start my xp3's up, I put a fine mesh dip net over tube and it catches all the stuff from the hoses before it goes into the rest of the aqaurium. I only cleaned my hoses once, that was years ago, I can still recall how much of a pain it was to do.

Good Idea! Gonna try that

 

[T1KARMANN]

i never clean the hoses

i only ever change the white filter pads once every 6 months and clean the pre filter (great thing about pro3 the pre filter is on top so no need to go near the bio media)

when i do change the white pad i always do it 1 day before my water change/gravel clean

i do a gravel clean at every water change so any rubbish kicked out by the filter is only in the tank 1 day

fish keeping is ment be fun the less cleaning the more fun

all this depends on your stock levels but my tank is not lightly stocked