I buy the cheap replacement FX5 sponges off of amazon. It's like $20 for 12 of them. I will run a set for 3 months or so, once they become a pain to rinse I'll toss a new pair in. You kill some beneficial bacteria when doing a cleaning, but any bio media should be rinsed in tank water. Keep a basket full of bio media and set it aside. As long as you don't kill the bacteria on it, you should have no issues with the smaller amount killed off by rinsing the rest of the filter.
Maybe I've Been Doing Things Wrong?
- Thread starter DeathStalker
- Start date
washing off filter parts in tap water isn't going to remove enough bacteria from the system to even make a dent. I wash ALL my filter sponges, pads, media, whatever under plain ol' tap water. Even if you have treated water the bacteria is built up on all surfaces of your tank, not just in the filter. Using tank water just tends to make a mess and more time for the person doing the cleaning.
3 hours!!!! 
In 3 hours, I can do a 50%w/c to all 5 of my tanks including complete cleaning of all 11 filters, vacuum the substrate, and clean the glass.......but I don't ever do all my tanks/filters in one shot.
I don't worry about my bio media crashing(due to cleaning) because I run multiple filters on all my tanks and I clean them separately weeks apart. I don't have an FX, but I have one Odyssea (FX knock-off) and I use filter floss on the entry stage. The filter floss does a great job at collecting a ton of crud with little to no bypass noticed during my monthly maintenance, so I seldom have to clean the lower stage sponges. I disconnect the input hose, then run the canister with the output hose still connected until 2/3 of the water in the canister has been removed, turn off canister and replace old floss with new floss, reassemble the lid and I'm done. Twice a year, I'll do a complete cleaning which takes about a half an hour (without rushing through the process)
In 3 hours, I can do a 50%w/c to all 5 of my tanks including complete cleaning of all 11 filters, vacuum the substrate, and clean the glass.......but I don't ever do all my tanks/filters in one shot.
I don't worry about my bio media crashing(due to cleaning) because I run multiple filters on all my tanks and I clean them separately weeks apart. I don't have an FX, but I have one Odyssea (FX knock-off) and I use filter floss on the entry stage. The filter floss does a great job at collecting a ton of crud with little to no bypass noticed during my monthly maintenance, so I seldom have to clean the lower stage sponges. I disconnect the input hose, then run the canister with the output hose still connected until 2/3 of the water in the canister has been removed, turn off canister and replace old floss with new floss, reassemble the lid and I'm done. Twice a year, I'll do a complete cleaning which takes about a half an hour (without rushing through the process)
I agree that adding additional filtration to the system will help a lot with "sharing the workload" of filtering debris and make cleanings less laborious.
I mainly go redundant on filtration so I can afford to clean the filters quick and painlessly with a hose ... that and should you have a catastrophic failure on your FX you don't have to panic.
I have a 75g single oscar tank, I put 2 whisper 60 HOB's and 2 406's on the tank. when I open the canisters up, even after a couple months, there's hardly anything to clear in there, it's a bare bottom tank, so I know everything is getting sucked up.
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
I mainly go redundant on filtration so I can afford to clean the filters quick and painlessly with a hose ... that and should you have a catastrophic failure on your FX you don't have to panic.
I have a 75g single oscar tank, I put 2 whisper 60 HOB's and 2 406's on the tank. when I open the canisters up, even after a couple months, there's hardly anything to clear in there, it's a bare bottom tank, so I know everything is getting sucked up.
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Well, as I posted in another thread, I'm returning the G6 I got (thank you Amazon!) and got a new FX6 for my failing FX5 - everything if quiet and clear now.
