Exactly. Ignore the know-it-alls, hot headed folks.
If you count the number of folks who gave useful info against folks who post crap.....not even close.
BTW, clean mine 3 or 4 weeks....depending on my mood
How often do you guys wash filters?
- Thread starter weichen14
- Start date
Exactly. Ignore the know-it-alls, hot headed folks.
If you count the number of folks who gave useful info against folks who post crap.....not even close.
BTW, clean mine 3 or 4 weeks....depending on my mood
You hear a wide range of ideas how to do it right, but they are mostly anecdotal opinions with no scientific evidence to back up. The only way to find out the truth is to conduct your own controlled experiments with measurements to evaluate the different management practices. Buy some testing kits to measure your pH, hardness and nitrates to see how the parameters vary with different filtration systems and management practices. I kept a log of such testing for several years and came to the conclusion that WC is the most important practice to maintain low nitrate level, not more filtration.
in other words, just change the damm water every week, that is the best thing you can do for your fish. folks say my fish is sick why?, I change 30% of the water every week. read there I add water as it evaporates. That is not changing the water. that's concentrating the toxins, like making a good soup stock. and if you did remove and replace 30% of the water, nitrates at say 20ppm are now reduced to say 17ppm, and next week, 30ppm reduced to 27 ppm and so on and so on.
Yes, the septic tank stuff. Look at the stickies in the disease section for the one on pro biotics. I have a friend who has to very similar tanks with FX5's. He cleaned them both on the same day and put Rid X in one tank. 3 months later he opened both filters and the one with Rid X had noticeably less gunk in the bottom and the sponges were cleaner.
Bottom line, you can clean cannisters on a very extended interval. And not have filth brewing, unless you are overfeeding. We who clean them once or twice a year know what we are doing. If it didn't work we would clean them more often.
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I thought it was like draino. Didn't realize it was safe for aquariums, very interesting indeed!
+1
Maintenance and the word preventive go hand and hand!
An aquarium system is like a car or machine, there's multiple pieces of the puzzle, its common sense that even with proper up keep things can still break and wear out, if you leave everything unattended for a year or longer its a huge gamble, like doing the same with your car. Except with aquariums we keep live animals that some of us consider pets, therefore maintaining filters, media, substrate, water, air pumps, lighting, glass etc is very important! For instance if my filter shuts off (mechanical failure, power outage) I still have a seeded sponge filter on battery backup that will allow Bio filtration, just like thousands of members that have battery powered air pumps! If your not going to have a fail safe for the inevitable then at least keep up on equipment, if not for peace of mind then for your fish!
Every wc I check all my silicone seams and make sure there's no separation, bubbling or splitting to avoid blowouts, just like every time I break down a filter I check impeller/motor housing for cracks, wear on the magnet etc to prevent the death of my fish, and second to that damage to my investment and house!
-We have the capability in this day in age to learn from each other and set good examples to folks just getting in the hobby. Just like arowana keepers that don't have adequate lids or one at all, I can't even guess at how many "my aro jumped and died" threads I've seen since I've been a part of MFK! Its sad and yes things get overlooked but with the resources on this site and the internet in general there's no longer an excuse.
×Go S. Vettel #1 Infiniti Redbull! 4x WDC!!! Congrats on another flawless title× <GET BETTER SCHUMI>
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Cheap way to decrease nitrates and keep your fish healthy: http://monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=504763
I have ten sponge filters running in one of my sumps, so I am prepared for nasty things to happen. I have a power inverter so I can run everything off of batteries as well as a genset. After 43 Christmases in this hobby snd only one split seam I don't look at them very often anymore.
There is lots I don't do anymore because experience says I don't need to. I don't change my oil at 3000 miles. That was something the oil change places came up eith. The engine manufacturers say otherwise.
I have learned by mistakes I have made and others mistakes. I'm not done making mistakes, so there is more to learn.
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if there is one thing I have learned in 54 years is there is always more to learn. whither from my 12 year old, or my grand dad. there is always more.
little blast from the past.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1A5WBf1EFQ
little blast from the past.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1A5WBf1EFQ
you have to make sure to use the powdered form, it only has natural BB and enzymes.
The liquid product has chemicals for aggressive cleaning.
