How often do you do maintenance on your canister filter?
- Thread starter dsun
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Jonnypro
Aquarium Advice Freak
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- Mar 26, 2012
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I do every three months. But it depends on what size tank you have
55 gallon, how often do you suggest i should do it?
Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
It's common to pull apart and clean a canister every month.
Jonnypro
Aquarium Advice Freak
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- Mar 26, 2012
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what is your bio load ? I have a 55g fresh also.
Ronnie05
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
On my 55 I have a ehiem 2324 professional I take it down every 2 or 3 months of if there's a noticeable drop in flow or when the uv needs cleaning the output of the ehiem flows through it.
Do you use a lot of carbon relative to bio-media? Making a difference?
I have 8 small to medium size cichlids in my 55G
Hmm im not sure, im using what the kit came with.
My filter has been up and running for a month and half now and was wondering if i should do some cleaning...
Hmm, interesting - my canisters only have foam, filter wool and ceramic bio-media. Carbon I just experiment with in an internal. Haven't got the links but pretty sure carbon lasts about 2-4 weeks and after 2(?) weeks it will start to get bb growing. If you had a lot of carbon to get rid of, you may lose a lot of bb.
I keep an eye on nitrates if they are increasing, if the outlet flow is decreasing and if the water doesn't look as clear. Probably clean a canister every 4 months I would say. I've seen schedules ranging from monthly to 6 monthly - I guess matching bio-load. The main thing I think is not to damage the bb population however often the cleaning schedule is.
I have all Fluval canisters and 4 on the 220g. I have found cleaning them every month ensures no excess buildup which can increase nitrates over time. On my fluvals I rinse all the sponges under tap water until the water runs clear, change out the filter floss, but never touch the bio-media. I rarely use carbon or Purgen in any of my filters as I find it's not needed in my planted tanks. I even have a Fluval 406 on my 55g nano fish tank that has a very low bio-load even with a lot of fish (due to their tiny size) but still clean that canister monthly. It's a quick and easy clean. I prefer knowing my filters are clean and not contributing to any excess toxin or nutrient levels.
In canister filters the sponges are almost always for mechanical filtration and not biological filtration so I use tap water to completely and thoroughly rinse them clean.
I never clean or rinse the bio-media (ceramic tubes or other) unless they get really mucked up. If they do need a rinse these should only be rinsed in tank water so you don't destroy your BB colony on them.
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