Polishing pads, mech filtrartion

[lilc64]

Was looking for some DIY mech. filtration and i see alot of people are using polyester quilt batting pads but you have to clean them ever week? I was looking to have 3 steps in my canister, larger pads for bigger waste, smaller pad for smaller waste, and polishing pad for very fine waste. i only wanted to maintenance my filter at the soonest once a month. What do you think?

....Whats that you say pot scrubbers?

 

[Toby_H]

That's a tough question to answer... All filters need to be cleaned 'as needed'...

The more waste a filter takes in the more often it has to be cleaned. It's not really a matter of 'how long', it's a matter of 'how much'...

So two people with the exact same filter using the exact same media in two very different tanks may have very different experiences with how often the filter media needs to be cleaned/replaced.

 

[aclockworkorange]

I threw three of the fluval fine pads in the top basket of my FX5 recently (the water is run through a series of coarse pads on the sides of the baskets first)... the bottom two baskets are full of substrat pro. I did this because they were $6 and didn't have the cash for more substrat pro.
I notice a difference, and the pads definitely have waste when I've opened up the canister, but I don't think it's a huge difference. Maybe the polishing pads would make more of a difference. I will probably replace them with a top basket of more bio media and maybe run just one pad.
Have you looked in to micron socks?