XP3...when to open it to rinse/replace media?

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SCFatz

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
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How often do you guys open yours for media changes,filter rinses ect.?

What is the indication to you that it should happen?

Its a big filter on a 50g tank so I know I'm not working the thing to hard,but I know it still needs attention,but when?

Also...I'm going to add the filter fiber to an empty basket when I open it next time.Do you really pack it full?Like as tightly as possible?Or more of a just fill the basket to the top kinda thing?

Stacking wise,is there a prefered order?Is there a better basket for the fiber then others?

I feel like I know some of these answers honestly,just want to be sure.I want to open it as little as possible mainly because of my stand design.Its going to be a bit of a pain to work with now that its under the tank because the door is so small.
If it were an 8th inch wider it would never have fit.
 
Two things should dictate filter cleaning. The first is rate of flow. If you notice that it's less powerful the filter needs to be cleaned. This includes making sure the hoses are clear, as well as the impeller. I'm an advocate of sponge prefilters to keep larger debris from clogging the filter.

The next is part of general monthly maintenance. It's a good idea to rinse filter floss, sponges, and ceramic media in a bucket of tank water. The order of basket stacking doesn't seem to be very important as long as the filter flow is steady.
 
I have the course filter on the bottom, fine filter in the middle, then filter floss, and ceramic rings on top, in a planted tank you don't use the carbon.

I rinse out the course and fine filters in used tank water, and replace the floss every 3 months or so. I also don't think in my tank they need it that often, but it doesn't hurt.

It makes sense to me to use the filter media the way I have it. If it were reversed the floss would be doing all the work (and need to be replaced more often) with the fine and course filters doing nothing.

By the way I have a 55g and the xp2.
 
Beef up your mechanical filtration, then the biomedia never needs changing. I have gone months without cracking a canister filter, and it just wasn't that dirty. However, I think the mechanical filter cleansing once a month is a good idea.
 
Thanks for the replies as always guys.Much appreciated.

I seems I've gotten myself into a very low maintance situation..cool.

Just so I'm clear..the only thing in mine now is what came in the box and a few old cartidges from my 29g for the sake of transfer.
I have the bag of fiber already....suggestions for what else to put in there are welcome.It seems ceramic rings are popular.
I'd like to get on the once a month schedule so I want to pack each basket right this time.

No thoughts on fiber packing a basket?
 
I have four baskets after the pre-filter sponge in my Fluval. One basket is ceramic noodles, not very porous, for coarse mechanical (came with the fluvals). Then a basket of filter floss for fine mechanical. then two baskets of porous biomedia. I have the fluval porouse ceramic stuff, and the porous biomedia from seachem, which is about half the price. Not the seachem stuff with nitogen removing additives, Just the porouse biomedia rocks, Matrix, I think?

For the filter floss baskets, I have used the kind that comes in sheets, and cut it to fit the basket, and also the kind that comes as a giant ball in a bag where you just pull some off and stuff it in the basket. Just stuffing the basket is faster and seems to work just fine.
 
Bottom basket, should have 2 coarse pads, then 2 fine pads
Middle basket, should normally have your ceramic bio-rings or bio-stars
top basket is generally meant for filter floss, Rena's micro pad, and granular media like carbon, rena's Bio-zorb, or the like.

Since I run planted tanks, i have bio rings in the top two baskets, and only occasionally run the micro pad. I often forget that pad, adn then after a month my filter barely moves water. it definitely traps gunk!

I clean my sponges monthly, rinse the rings. I replace the sponges once per year. I've yet to replace the ceramic rings once in 2.6 years
 
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