Water Change Help!

[Venustus]

Hey Everyone,

I have a 46 bowfront housing african cichlids. The tank runs on an Emperor 350 hang filter. I recently added a Marineland C-360 because I decided to add more fish into the tank. I've never really had a canister filter and I don't know how I would do a water change with this new filter. Should I keep it running while I change the water? Do I unplug it like you would normally do for a hang filter? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[predatorfish1]

just do the same as a hangfilter

 

[frontosa521]

yup just unplug it do the water change and plug it back on i do that with my rena filters

 

[skillzizzo]

the same as usuall. Just be carefull how long u leave it off for if you shut them off so you dont kill the bacteria in them. I leave my running allways unless i make the water lower then the filters can pump

 

[Venustus]

Great! Thanks for the information.

 

[jhutch]

if you have another filter you shouldnt have to worry about turning off the canister and killing bacteria. I run multiple filters on my tanks and when i do water changes i rotate which filter i clean and change cartridges on etc. killing bacteria in filters isnt really anything to worry about when you have more than one filter.

 

[Pigeonblood]

Your not going to kill the bacteria. I clean every filter once every two weeks and I havent lost a fish to it yet....the bacteria are an evolutionary masterpiece, five minutes w/o water wont kill them.. dont rinse the media under tap though, rinse it under old aquarium water.

 

[Venustus]

I was planning on rotating the cleaning of the filters. I do weekly water changes so each filter would be cleaned 2x a month doing usual rinses of media. Thanks so much for all the help. It is greatly appreciated!

 

[malawidave]

This may sound completely rediculus, but my filters are almost no concern to me other than catching poo and other junk. My tank's been set up so long now I pretty much just run the filters for aeration and pooperscooper. I have somewhere around 200lbs of rockwork in my tank, and over time its become "live" like Marine live rock... its pretty nice... I do a weekly test just to be safe, but my levels stay ideal for nearly a month after that is when Nitrates begin to rise, when when they do I do about 30% WC, and its good for another 25 - 30 days... and I keep 35 fish... I am now an extreme advocate of lots of pourus rock in an african tank

sorry for going off the question... I do have a canister on my smaller tank. I usually turn it off if the water change goes below the intake, then when I turn it back on... I have a womans stocking (dont laugh) covering the outlet, because for some reason the dust from the granule media I have in it likes to backwash out of it when it starts back up again... I use the stocking to filter that or the tank gets cloudy for a little while after.

and as for the response of "killing the bacteria" I dont know about the particular model you have, but I have a Marineland Magnum, and when it turns off, it stays full of water (keeping it full of water helps to restart the system without loss of suction)... so there wouldnt be a problem there

 

[Spartacus]

those filters are a pain in the *** to clean unless you get quick disconnect setup for hoses.I like the Hot Magnum much better.