Wet/Dry filters - How often to clean?

[spinman]

For those that have wet/drys along with LR, how often do you clean the foam pad atop the bio balls and the sponge block at the bottom of the sump?

I figure I'd clean them every 2 weeks while I'm doing my PWCs. Just rinse them in old tank water.

Are the filters really needed? I'm also wondering if I should just get rid of them, and let the skimmer take over.

Thx

Mike

 

[cmor1701d]

Get rid of the bio balls (a little at a time) and the filter pads. Let the LR and DSB do their jobs. Together with the protein skimmer you should be good to go. The bioballs produce nitrate.

Don't just dump it all at once. You need to remove a little each week so the bio filter has time to regenerate.

 

[lando]

Cleaning every couple of weeks is good practice. Change the filter pad and rinse the sponge in tank water. Rinsing the bioballs in tank water is another good idea. As mentioned, you might want to consider swapping our the bioballs with LR rubble. It is a much better filter media. remove the egg crate the bioballs sit on fill up the chamber about half way with LR rubble. Make sure it is fully submerged

 

[spinman]

At which time would the LR be doing all the work and the bio balls just being redundant? My tank has been up and running for over 2 months. I would think my 50#s of LR would have seeded some of the 150#s of base rock by now with beneficial bacteria.

I'm wondering why you have to slowly remove the B-balls if your LR is doing its job.

Mike

 

[cmor1701d]

The bioballs are part of your biological filter. They host bacteria that break down ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Remove the bioballs and you remove some of the beneficial bacteria. You need to allow for the time it takes for the amount of bacteria you removed to repopulate on other surfaces (the lr rubble, uncoated surfaces of other rock, sand etc.) till the system is back in stasis. Remove too much at once and the bio load will continue to produce the same amount of waste but you won't have enough bacteria to keep up with it...possibly causing an ammonia spike.

 

[pelochas]

dont mean to hijack this thread, im a newbie and have read a lot and read somewhere in this forum about removing the bio balls and adding the lr rubble. im confused about the part where one member posted that cleaning the wet dry filter is almost to a minimal to about a few months or up to a year. just wondering what is recommended and what opinions other have on their wet dry filter. btw before i start my new aquarium, i removed the bio balls and waiting for the lr rubble. i have the sponge at the bottom of the wet dry tank. i should remove this correct. i also have a bag of crushed corral. should i add that to my main tank which isnt enough for a 75 gal tank or add that to my wet dry filter as a bed for my rubble? thanks for a great forum.