Stupid question- how to clean ac110 media

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H

hybridtheoryd16

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 28, 2007
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kentucky
Ok I am trying really hard to like this filter.

I picked one up a while back because my lfs was out of my beloved emperor 400's. And I went to clean the sponges today and

I picked up on the basket holder to raise them up to rinse them and as the water poured from the sponges so does a good portion of the dirt that it has picked up.

So I go ahead and rinse them only to find out that they weren't really all that dirty. I replaced them and turned the filter back on and the filter spewed black dirt filled water right back into my tank. :irked:

So am i going to have to remove the filter from the tank so that i can pour out all the dirt that collects at the bottom everytime i clean it?

I know this is a stupid question but I am having a hard time beleiveing that everyone's favorite filter is this terrible of a design.

thanks for the help
 
you shouldn't have to this every time

I clean the media regularly, but only pull the filter off the tank probably once a year. seriously lol

the impeller/impeller chamber on the AC is large enought that it never gets enough gunk in it to stop spinning, so it always starts automatically after a power outage. the smaller AC's don't because they get gummed up easily and I never clean the impeller chambers on them as often as I should lol
 
i have 2 110acs on my 90 gal. i use the sponge on the bottom, 2 (stacked) blue/white filter fiber (the kind you buy in sheets and cut to size) and my biomedia. i have found that the best way to change/clean the filter fiber is to unplug the ac, pull the fiber out and go hose them down to really get the dirt out. put them back in with the biomedia on top, again and plug them back in. this method GREATLY reduces the backwash that would otherwise come out. NOTE: make sure the fiber is a snug fit side to side in the basket. hope this helps
 
i have 2 ac110s on a 56 gallon.

i don't use the lifting baskets or those crappy holding bags that come with the media. i keep all media in individual paint strainer bags; 3 bags per ac110. when i go to rinse, i use a big bowl to transport them to a bucket of tank water. i only clean my media if i see the flow is weak.
 
Yeah I agree with death stings you only need to clean the filter media when the flow slows down. Rinse in a bucket of tank water. I haven't had my filter off for 6 years and this tank is a 90 galion with some large haps and a large synodontis catfish.
 
I was wondering the same thing last time I serviced mine. I actually let it get kind of dirty and come time to service it I lifted the basket and was surprised the sponge was not very dirty but the bottom of the filter was.... I lifted it off of the tank and rinsed all that crap out. Either way its still easier than servicing a canister and has tons of flow so I guess it all kind of evens out.
 
You can always just siphon the chamber instead of removing the entire filter, just gotta refill it with water before starting up again. And yea just rinse all your media in tank water.
 
So does everyone get very dirty water shooting back into there tanks after a media cleaning?

I am doing what everyone is saying, but when i lift the sponges out the water that is in them flows out the bottom carrying the dirt with it. Then i rinse and reinstall and when i plug it back in all the dirt shoots out into the tank. :irked:

I have never seen this happen nearly this bad with all my emperor and aquatec filters that I have been using for close to 20 years know. That is what is really throwing me off.

Like with my emperor 400's

I lift the cartridge out and if i do it quickly I get very little to no dirt pouring back into the filter case. So i have a bucket in one hand and i go around and lift all them out and place them in the bucket. Then I go and spray them off with the water hose spray nozzle to get them like new clean. Them slide them back in. What dirt does pour back into the filter the second stage filtration basket catches. And i get no dirty water pouring back into the tank.
 
a little bit is normal,

your not getting the same problem with the emperor because it doesn't trap very much dirt compared to the AC, since the AC has subsantially more media capacity.

as I lift the AC basket out, I try and be as quick as I can, not to allow so much dirty water to fall back into the chamber.

but what little bit you get discharging back into the water is quickly filtered back out when you are done. its not a big deal.
 
I've had ACs for a while and I've never experienced the dirt flowing back into the tank.
and cleaning the filter itself isn't hard at all.
 
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