how often should you clean just the Filter?

[Bubble_B0y]

I perform water changes weekly.

But how often are you supposed to clean just the filter?

 

[librarygirl]

What do you mean by clean? If you mean replace: not until it's literally falling apart. For cleaning, I rinse mine out in old tank water during a water change (I squeeze the media to get all the gunk off and the water turns brown). I do this maybe once or twice a month. Once every month or two I'll take apart the filters and clean the housing of any gunk as well.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

i have filter floss/filter wool in my Aquaclear Hang-on-back filter.

After 1-2months it gets black and very dirty.
Can I throw that in the garbage?

 

[Lotsofbabies]

I only do a thorough clean of filters twice a year, prefering to keep the safe and needed bacteria for as long as possible, but it all depends on your set up...

I may be wrong, but I've not had any problems with my tanks so far.

Had to replace whole filter the past weekend, due to the electric wire going haywire...

 

[librarygirl]

i have filter floss/filter wool in my Aquaclear Hang-on-back filter.

After 1-2months it gets black and very dirty.
Can I throw that in the garbage?

Yep it's fine to replace the filter floss regularly, I do that too.

 

[BBradbury]

Filter Cleaning

I perform water changes weekly.

But how often are you supposed to clean just the filter?

Hello Bubble...

I squeeze out and rinse the filter media in old tank water every week when I do my water changes and just put it back in the filter. With all the plants and fish I have, the media would get too clogged if I didn't clean it every week.

B

 

[adammorrill]

what i do is i replace the cartridge every month because dont you need the carbon that is in the cartridge?