water changes/filter cleaning questions

[midnight]

this is my newby question
lil late?
i guess i been doing things wrong the whole time

1.
at what point are you doing to many water changes?
like,could you do a w/c every day and it be ok?
im asking cus ive done like 4 w/c in 5 days,one night i did 2,a few hours apart
and i was just curious at what point is it bad for the fish/tank/filter
usually i do a wc every 2 weeks give or take
but im trying to get amm down and thats why im asking this

2.
a few people on here say cleaning the mechanical media "felt and floss" with a garden hose,kills all my BB
"im not saying i dont belive them just curious about the answer"
if most of the bb is in the scrubbies,why is it bad to clean the mechanical media this way?
if the bb in the mech media dies most of the bb is still in the scrubbies right?

3.
i clean my mechanical media when i do "the normal" wc "once every week or 2"
"so really i clean it about twice a month"
is this wrong or normal?the cleaning the mechanical media part
how many times a month do you clean you mechanical media?
also,i do "not" clean my scrubbies

im asking all this cus i
have great filters
do w/c
clean filters
light stocking
light feedings
and yet in the end my water quality is always way off in most of my tanks
this is driving me to the point im getting tired of all the work just to have bad water

any advice?

 

[Sic_Maggot13]

size of tank, whats in it, what kind of water, what kind of filters.

 

[Yoji_嬰孩]

Doing daily W/C are great I do 40% every 2 days with no ill affects its actually making everything grow faster. As for the garden hose on the mechanical filter I always have a bucket or two of tank water that I just removed and I clean all my media in the old tank water this way all the BB will still be there and your media will be cleaned. I clean my mechanical once a week.

Keep up with W/C's and do 2-3 day testings until you get your params stable.

 

[midnight]

size of tank, whats in it, what kind of water, what kind of filters.

this was more of a general question lol
like i said,few different tanks,lightly stocked,light feedings,w/d filters,fw

Doing daily W/C are great I do 40% every 2 days with no ill affects its actually making everything grow faster. As for the garden hose on the mechanical filter I always have a bucket or two of tank water that I just removed and I clean all my media in the old tank water this way all the BB will still be there and your media will be cleaned. I clean my mechanical once a week.

Keep up with W/C's and do 2-3 day testings until you get your params stable.

only reason i did so many w/c was to get amm down
if i have to do that many w/c im done lol
and doesnt the bucket of tank water trick barely clean it?
im figuring,clean it that way and i will have to clean it way more times,and it not really getting clean

 

[Dr Joe]

1) When the biologicals in the filter die off from malnutrition. With the proper filtration matched to the bio-stocking, W/C's are infrequently needed and should be judged by the tanks chemistry (mainly nitrAtes). If your doing W/C's for ammonia the filter is working right, isn't cycled or isn't large enough for the bio-load.

2) You can clean the mechanical filters with tap water, but final rinse them is a bucket of water with extra dechlor to detox them. If a tank is relying on the BB in the mechanical filter something is bad wrong.

3) See #1, and you are correct in not cleaning the scrubbies (rinse with used tank water if sludge/mum builds up (this shouldn't be a problem with proper filters).

By "My water quality is always way off", do you mean suspended particulate matter in the tank water? If so you have improper mechanical filtration. Use a "course" layer first to trap large particles and then medium (to catch the particles that erode from the first stage because it wasn't cleaned frequently enough), then a fine layer and finally a polishing layer if needed.

If all else fails, put lots of direct sunlight on the tanks and after a week you won't even notice he water quality.

Think about getting a Diatomaceous earthfilter (ebay is cheap) for clean-up (run for a couple of hours once or twice a week to polish the water.

Dr Joe

.

 

[frasertheking]

1) When the biologicals in the filter die off from malnutrition. With the proper filtration matched to the bio-stocking, W/C's are infrequently needed and should be judged by the tanks chemistry (mainly nitrAtes). If your doing W/C's for ammonia the filter is working right, isn't cycled or isn't large enough for the bio-load.

2) You can clean the mechanical filters with tap water, but final rinse them is a bucket of water with extra dechlor to detox them. If a tank is relying on the BB in the mechanical filter something is bad wrong.

3) See #1, and you are correct in not cleaning the scrubbies (rinse with used tank water if sludge/mum builds up (this shouldn't be a problem with proper filters).

By "My water quality is always way off", do you mean suspended particulate matter in the tank water? If so you have improper mechanical filtration. Use a "course" layer first to trap large particles and then medium (to catch the particles that erode from the first stage because it wasn't cleaned frequently enough), then a fine layer and finally a polishing layer if needed.

If all else fails, put lots of direct sunlight on the tanks and after a week you won't even notice he water quality.

Think about getting a Diatomaceous earthfilter (ebay is cheap) for clean-up (run for a couple of hours once or twice a week to polish the water.

Dr Joe

.

there is such a thing as an over clean tank .

 

[midnight]

1) When the biologicals in the filter die off from malnutrition. With the proper filtration matched to the bio-stocking, W/C's are infrequently needed and should be judged by the tanks chemistry (mainly nitrAtes). If your doing W/C's for ammonia the filter is working right, isn't cycled or isn't large enough for the bio-load.

2) You can clean the mechanical filters with tap water, but final rinse them is a bucket of water with extra dechlor to detox them. If a tank is relying on the BB in the mechanical filter something is bad wrong.

3) See #1, and you are correct in not cleaning the scrubbies (rinse with used tank water if sludge/mum builds up (this shouldn't be a problem with proper filters).

By "My water quality is always way off", do you mean suspended particulate matter in the tank water? If so you have improper mechanical filtration. Use a "course" layer first to trap large particles and then medium (to catch the particles that erode from the first stage because it wasn't cleaned frequently enough), then a fine layer and finally a polishing layer if needed.

If all else fails, put lots of direct sunlight on the tanks and after a week you won't even notice he water quality.

Think about getting a Diatomaceous earthfilter (ebay is cheap) for clean-up (run for a couple of hours once or twice a week to polish the water.

Dr Joe

.

1.

If your doing W/C's for ammonia the filter is working righ

"isnt" working right,right?lol
and on the 55g the filter has been up over a month,and its a 10g with over 200gph plus a dual hob.tank has 2 4 month old pacus
then on my 240g,ha,tank been running over 6 months,monster filter,2 foot aro with misc fish
this is my point,i have huge filters,and still have amm

2.
good idea on the detox idea
and thats what i thought
big names said that,but wouldnt say why.lol
wish they would chime in
but ya,i figured mech really had nothing to do with the bb
ya it might hold a lil but most should be in bb
"some thought this was my problem"


3.
ok

and water quality is mainly just high amm sorry

 

[midnight]

bump