Hey guys. I have been told loads of things about cleaning my filters. My water is fine but it looks a bit bitty and cloudy. Not extreme but enough for me to notice and not like it. Could this be time to clean my filters? They’ve been running for around 3 and a half months now without me touching them. It’s only the past day I’ve noticed my water changing. I do have 2. So should I clean one, then clean my second one the week after…..?
When do clean Fx6
- Thread starter BOOMSHAKER
- Start date
I clean mine monthly, just dip the filter media in used tank water during a water change and squeeze and shake them a bit to get the debris out. Don't use tap water. Cloudy or hazy water could be a lot of things, how often do you do water changes and how much volume do you change?
That should be good then. Depending on how stocked your tank is, how messy your paarticular fish are etc, you might be able to go a few months between cleanings but in my experience, it's way easier to do it more frequently even if it doesn't look too bad when you open it up rather than wait until its a much bigger job and the gunk is built up. Also letting it go until the gunk builds up can lead to poorer water quality. I'm sure others could go deeper into this like
duanes
duanes
you can clean it weekly if you really feel up to it. depending on your time and schedule that's prohibitive
you can tell when you NEED to clean when the flow from the outflow nozzles decreases
for me that's every 4-6 months. I also don't have the time/energy to do it more often than at mostly quarterly
everyone will be different
I also don't mind a bit of debris in the water column
you can tell when you NEED to clean when the flow from the outflow nozzles decreases
for me that's every 4-6 months. I also don't have the time/energy to do it more often than at mostly quarterly
everyone will be different
I also don't mind a bit of debris in the water column
Yeah, honestly, I don't have a "regular schedule" for cleaning any of my filters. They get cleaned when the flow starts getting obscured and slows down. Almost all of my tanks are pretty lighted stocked, so this is often like twice a year. I'd much rather spend an extra half an hour doing a deep clean on a very dirtied filter twice per year, than take the time to pull it apart just to rinse it once per month just for the sake of it. Might take longer at the time you're doing it, but you're doing it way less frequently so it's still less time overall.
Also one thing to note is you have to turn the aquastop valves open / close when you bring the canister out.
Speaking from experience they eventually leak. And the more times you turn the quicker they (eventually) leak.
That being said they can be repaired / placed. But still.
FX6 filters are beasts. I have 4 across my tanks. My oldest are nearing a decade and holding strong.
Speaking from experience they eventually leak. And the more times you turn the quicker they (eventually) leak.
That being said they can be repaired / placed. But still.
FX6 filters are beasts. I have 4 across my tanks. My oldest are nearing a decade and holding strong.
I have 11 FX6's running and over time have tried most options. I've over serviced them, I've let them go longer than I should have, I've not remembered the last time I had serviced them, and I've also tried waiting for the filter to tell me it needed some love by slowing way down or making gurgley noises.
I have extra baskets so now I wait a couple months and swap the top level baskets out on multiple filters on the same tank. It allows for reasonably fresh filter material on that top layer and leaves the majority of the bio material untouched. In my filters the top basket is usually only filled w/ pool balls so yeah, I lose a little of the bio colony but not enough to have made a difference the next day.
I have an oversized plastic tub with a couple of rope handles on it that I use to dump the top baskets into then I toss 'em in mamma's wash machine on rinse and slide 'em into the dryer. She's not a huge fan of filter media hanging out in the wash machine or the bit of occasional nastiness left behind so I hit the rim w/ a paper towel to get any residual scrode out of the washer before my work is open for general scrutiny and comment.
I have extra baskets so now I wait a couple months and swap the top level baskets out on multiple filters on the same tank. It allows for reasonably fresh filter material on that top layer and leaves the majority of the bio material untouched. In my filters the top basket is usually only filled w/ pool balls so yeah, I lose a little of the bio colony but not enough to have made a difference the next day.
I have an oversized plastic tub with a couple of rope handles on it that I use to dump the top baskets into then I toss 'em in mamma's wash machine on rinse and slide 'em into the dryer. She's not a huge fan of filter media hanging out in the wash machine or the bit of occasional nastiness left behind so I hit the rim w/ a paper towel to get any residual scrode out of the washer before my work is open for general scrutiny and comment.