Is this rinsing my filters too much?

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I did some searching and found duanes pointing out multiple times how filters can easily just spew gunk back into the water if not regularly cleaned. This has me worrying that perhaps my monthly replacements for the filters (as per the directions on the package) might not be enough.
My immediate first thought was to rinse the filters (sponge and cartridges) at each one of the 3x weekly tank cleanings/water replacements, but would this be too much? I don't want to end up killing off the beneficial bacteria whenever I clean the tank.
If it is too much, what would be a better routine?

 

[tlindsey]

I did some searching and found duanes pointing out multiple times how filters can easily just spew gunk back into the water if not regularly cleaned. This has me worrying that perhaps my monthly replacements for the filters (as per the directions on the package) might not be enough.
My immediate first thought was to rinse the filters (sponge and cartridges) at each one of the 3x weekly tank cleanings/water replacements, but would this be too much? I don't want to end up killing off the beneficial bacteria whenever I clean the tank.
If it is too much, what would be a better routine?

I would dunk the sponge and cartridges in a bucket of aquarium water removed during wc's. The cartridges could be rinsed off but I prefer not to do that. Definitely wouldn't rinse the sponge under the tap.

 

[tlindsey]

You should be fine.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Thanks. I never use tap water anyways, just old tank water, which there is always plenty of during tank cleanings (260 liters).

 

[Midwater]

I rinse of the lava in my sumps every year or two. Not too much. "Gunk" contains good bacteria.

 

[LBDave]

I clean filter pads and socks with bleach every week. Rinse with water and sun dry. I clean sponges with treated hot water about every month or 2. Rinse out bioballs and ceramic every 3-4 months.
Of course the bio load of the tank has a lot to do with how often you do stuff like this.
Also I feed a lot of krill in one tank and some gets in the filter. It stinks.
Bleach solves this and makes what is caught in the filter inert.

I probably overdo it a bit but years ago was having HITH symptoms on some fish. Thoroughly cleaning the sumps and filter media seems to help.

 

[esoxlucius]

I take it you run cannisters of some sort on your systems? One of the downsides of cannisters, compared to sumps (yes, I run sumps) is that you only have 'x' amount of space for mech, and 'x' amount of space for bio. You are stuck with those limited spaces.

All too often, due to this limited space, I think most people find that their bio section alone isn't always up to scratch on producing enough BB for their bio load. And so they begin to rely on BB within the mech side too.

This can be a problem when maintanance time comes. Usually you'd leave the bio media alone but when washing/rinsing the mech side how vigorously, and for how long do you rinse it when you're in danger of getting rid of a heap of BB too?

Wash too much and you might get a spike in ammonia for a while when you put it all back together. Wash too little and you've still got a load of crud in your filters.

Also, although it is the correct and recognised thing to do, you must always wash your mech filters in a bucket of tank water. But once you start squeezing those sponges....ugghhh, the water goes muddy and then the whole point of cleaning/rinsing has completely gone!

My mech side gets blasted under the tap. Hot, chlorine rich tap water, and whether any BB get annihilated along the way, it doesn't matter, because my large bio sections are more than capable of coping. Never do I experience parameter spikes after filter cleaning.

If I ran cannisters I think I'd run sponge filters in conjunction too. Hopefully there'd be enough BB in the sponge filter to cope with any BB losses in my main filter during cleaning. That way you too may also get away with blitzing your mech side under "deadly" hot tap water.

 

[duanes]

What I believe is spewed back into the tank, is not so much physical gunk, but invisible gunk in the form of nitrate.
The longer physical gunk in the form of waste sits in, and builds up in the filter, the more nitrate is being created thru metabolism and sent back in the tank.
As far as nitrate (and the other types of chemical pollutants), if they are in a filter, they are still in the tank.
The only way you remove it, is being cleaning the nitrate precursor waste from the mechanical media.
One of the reasons I don't like canisters, is that they tend to sit filling with nitrate producing gunk for lengthy periods of timewithout cleaning.
I usually rinse mechanical media in filters at the same time and frequency as water changes are done,....... every other day
And although cans may seem to be filtering out stuff aesthetically displeasing stuff well, the physical appearance of the water can be deceiving, giving the illusion that the water is good, when in reality, full of invisible pollutants, that in my view, are the real problem.
The only way to know for sure, is to test for the pollution indicator, nitrate.
To me if nitrate tests above 5 ppm, the water is not right.

 

[neutrino]

I've done different filtration schemes, starting in the 1960s, and I've had all of them work, so I don't buy the notion of a nirvana filtration scheme, one is the best and everything else stinks, or that this or that is a "nitrate factory." Some of it just comes down to preference (or budget), aesthetics, and the maintenance routine you have or prefer.

I currently use canisters, primarily, sometimes in combo with a Seachem Tidal. Low nitrates, 5-ish, and no I don't clean them out constantly. It actually varies from tank to tank and depends on the tank, fish in the tank-- numbers and types, and filter(s) on the tank. I go both by eye test and water quality. Shortest cycle tank gets filter rinsed about every 6 weeks (for canisters, the Tidal might be more often, depending on its setup and purpose for a tank), others less often. Works for me, will vary for others according to tank, fish, filters, tap water, etc.

Every set up is different, including how you set your filters up, so there's not a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone, including nitrate levels. 5 is great and for some species it makes a difference, but as much as some may criticize this, t's well proven in the hobby for many years that most fish are just fine with 20-40, so I wouldn't obsess over getting there. As important, probably more so, is non-beneficial bacteria load, which can be complex, affected by multiple factors, and not something you can directly test for. Also water mineral balance, other environmental or behavioral stress factors, etc. A lot goes into fish health, it's not all down to a single number, like nitrates.

Of course, everyone has their own philosophy and reasoning, what works for them in terms of efficiency, success, etc. I've fine tuned this for myself over the years, still occasionally tweak something a little, typically in the interest of efficiency-- less work, not more. I don't operate according to someone else's opinions, what I do works for me and I typically have long lived fish, some a good bit longer than their supposed life expectancy (severums that live 17-18 years, etc.) and very rarely have a sick one.

No harm in trying what others do or say, I certainly have, but I say eventually you should come to your own methods and conclusions.

 

[neutrino]

...Just to expand on the canister-Tidal thing above. One way to do it is to set up a canister primarily for bio and also have a fast-ish filter primarily for mechanical. I'm currently doing this in a tank with an Eheim canister and a Tidal, the Tidal gets rinsed every 2-3 weeks, so far the canister I've been doing every 2-3 months and there's not much in it by then, it's not hard to maintain but it could go longer-- low bio-load in the tank.

--When I say I rarely get a sick fish? For example, I've only ever had one, single, mild, quickly cured case of HITH in all the years I've had fish.