How often do you clean your canister filters?.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have a Fluval FX5 that I run until the flow slows down I only put black bio stars and porcland beads in it and I do a three quarter water cange every week and vacume the gravel. I have so much bio in the canester fillter it dosent throw off my cycle and my tank is over crowed it is a 150 gallon tank. If anything I should put a large aqua clear fillter to pick up more waste on bottom. I also use the pads on sides of canaster
 
I am all of cleaning less often because I am lazy. I am new to cannisters so I am still finding my way. I have a 75 gal with 1 10in rhom running a FX5, so its not an extremely heavy load. Feeding him once/twice a week is also significantly less than most people.

I will tell you this though. I open the cannister after about 3month to clean it out. While the media itself was pretty clean and needed minimal rinsing there was so much brown gunk in the bucket and around the bottom it was scary. That is all the crap that I am concerned about.

FX5 and other filters also have a backflush option to help clean out debris, so I think if people using this often and keep up water changes you can reduce the frequency of openning the cannister, but 6 months sounds like an awfully long time to me.
 
I do my XP3's every other month since I have two running and my 2262 I just the back flush on water changes to get out anything in the bottom and then every 6 months or so is my plan. It's only been running 3 months now and it's been pushing the same as the first day and I've got it full of biological anyways. I think it's a matter of stock and how much filteration you have on the tank to be honest. There is plenty of variables out there that can play into this and it's really hard to answer it because it's a tank by tank basis really.
 
With all due respect, six months without cleaning canister is nonsensical unless you are runing only a planted tank with no fish at all.
 
I clean my fx5 every two weeks. It is cleaning a 125. I can't imagine leaving it for longer than that. The polishing pads I pull out of that thing are nasty. Like I dropped them in mud. I don't get why people think its so hard it takes me about 30mins total to do the whole process. One thing that helps is lube your o-rings with plumbers grease. It is silicone grease and keeps your rings fresh also g with taking them valves off the top of the canister a breese

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wow most of you are crazy..months between cleaning?!...

I clean the entire thing every other water change and the sponges every water change...so canister gets cleaned out twice a month...would never wait longer than two weeks and my tank is not even over stocked.

My fiance cleans his ever 3-5 days.
 
Kaosu said:
wow most of you are crazy..months between cleaning?!...

I clean the entire thing every other water change and the sponges every water change...so canister gets cleaned out twice a month...would never wait longer than two weeks and my tank is not even over stocked.

My fiance cleans his ever 3-5 days.
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Lol, I also think leaving a canister without cleanng by months isnt wise, but you on the other hand exaggerate with those that often cleaning routines, In one point I will give you reason, what you do wouldnt harm your fish at all unlike what those other forummites do, leaving the canister running by months after clening it.

Maybe cleaning a canister in a monthly basis is the right call on average.
 
You guys must have a lot of time or a very nice work schedule to be cleaning canisters every two weeks. I clean my HOB filter media every 2-3 weeks. I only clean my canister every 3-6 months. I only feed enough for my fish eat in 10mins. There is very little food going to waste.
 
I'm lazy so I don't do it very often. Maybe once every 2-3 months. Whenever I think about it.

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