Bio media cleaning

[Zaedon]

Bio media cleaning?

I run two Marineland c-360 on my 75 gallon African cichlid and am curious about how often the bio media should be cleaned. The included instructions say often. Often? What is often? Should I just rinse the bio media in aquarium water? I am being cautious as I don't want ot to kill off helpful bacteria and start a mini cycle.

Also what do you guys/gals think of prefilters ( Sponges over inlets ).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Z

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I would assume "often" means "as often is necessary to keep the media from getting clogged and restricting water flow".

As from pre-filters, I've never used one, but they seem like they would be a pain to clean without risking everything they just filtered falling right back into the tank. But of course if the purpose of the pre-flter is to prevent something like fry from getting sucked up into the filter, I guess you do what you have to do.

 

[KlcoKN]

I've heard alot of people say they give their filter media a couple of swishes or squeezes in the removed tank water every other week to once a month. And since you have two I'd just rinse one at a time, that way one is still fully stocked with bb all the time.
We use pre filters because of guppy fry, and they are a pain to remove without everything they've collected falling back into the water, but seeing how much stuff collects on them I'd say its worth it, wouldn't want in the filter propeller...

 

[boadams87]

I run two Marineland c-360 on my 75 gallon African cichlid and am curious about how often the bio media should be cleaned. The included instructions say often. Often? What is often? Should I just rinse the bio media in aquarium water? I am being cautious as I don't want ot to kill off helpful bacteria and start a mini cycle.

Also what do you guys/gals think of prefilters ( Sponges over inlets ).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Z

I clean mine only when it clogs up and my water runs over the overflow hole and only use aquarium water.

 

[Zaedon]

Thanks for the input. I like the idea of doing one at a time to keep the bb colonies alive and kicking. I was just a bit confused as the instructions were very specific for change intervals for mechanical filteration, but just said often for bio filter media.

Thanks again for providing excellent insight.