Easiest way to clean a canister...?

[Andrewz00]

is it just me? am i the only one?

unhook the intake and return valves... carry canister into the kitchen.... fill a 5 gal bucket 3/4 the way with tank water..... and start to take apart the canister.

first: floss pads - take out the 2 pads and rinse and wring them out....

second: bio media (Eheim ehfisubstrat) - i keep this in a mesh bag. normally i keep it in the bag and rinse but every other cleaning i remove from the mesh bag and dump directly into the bucket of tank water, swish around and replace into the bag. being sure you got every single little piece of media!!

Third: course pad - swish around and wring out.

finally: mechanical media (Eheim ehfimech) - dump from canister into bucket, swish and replace ....

simple right? yup.... except im SICK AND TIRED of fishing around in the **** bucket of fish sh*t to pick out each and every lil piece of media...

any solutions? Ideas? what do you do? any "filter cleaning products/systems" ? DIY perhaps?

 

[Andrewz00]

bump

 

[mfdrookie516]

Yep. I go out on my deck (except in winter, use bathtub then), run my hose from my tank, get it started siphoning, use a bucket for sponges, run water over media baskets to rinse out, done. If you dont like getting your hands dirty, you can always use a pair of those yellow (should I say laides? Ok I'm kidding) dishwashing gloves.

 

[Andrewz00]

its not a matter of getting dirty... im sick of trying to find EVERY piece of the mech and bio media in the bucket by hand...

since the Eheim 2217 has no baskets i just dump it into the bucket...

 

[mfdrookie516]

It doesn't have baskets?? wow that's odd. My 2224 does.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Ok. I see that now. Hmmm... How about using a spaghetti strainer or something of that nature? Just pour the media in there, rinse it out with the hose from your tank? Seems to be about the same concept as I use.

 

[Andrewz00]

nope.. no baskets... just like "dividers"

 

[Andrewz00]

Ok. I see that now. Hmmm... How about using a spaghetti strainer or something of that nature? Just pour the media in there, rinse it out with the hose from your tank? Seems to be about the same concept as I use.

not a bad idea.. ill have to see how that works. Due for a cleaning/pwc tonight anyway...

 

[Tim Wheatley]

It usually takes me 10mins to clean both my fx5s. I rinse the canister itself, all the pieces except the actual media with tap water, tipping it in and rinsing out.

The filter media I do 'rinse' in a bucket of tap water. Never takes long though.

 

[Andrewz00]

time isnt the concern.... i could care less if it took an hour... i just hate fishing every lil piece of media out of the bucket... especially when its not brown from all the waste...

 

[Tim Wheatley]

That's probably the bad bit of that canister... Maybe you could buy a plastic garbage can that you can use for this purpose? Tip the canister out into it rather than picking things out. I think it's a lot easier with baskets than those divider thingys.