Foam pads in fluval 405.

[denwhite16]

How often do you guys replace the four foam pads in your filter? Should I be replacing them whenever I do maintenance, or should I just rinse them off with tank water and put them back in?

 

[reflex1]

Just continue to rinse in tank water - once they start to fall apart is when you replace!

 

[eco23]

I just rinse them in tank (not tap) water and throw them back in. I've had the same ones since I bought the 405. Since there's 4 of them, it probably wouldn't be a big deal to replace them one at a time when they start getting unviable, but I wouldn't replace them all at once.

A great trick I use with my 405 is putting poly-fil (pillow stuffing) in the bottom basket. I replace it weekly during pwc's (so it doesn't have time to significantly develop BB) and you'd be shocked how filthy that stuff gets after a week. It catches all the fine particles and makes my water crystal clear.

 

[denwhite16]

Yeah, I just started doing that trick w/ this last maintenance. Thanks to all the suggestions on here.

 

[jcolon]

I just rinse them in tank (not tap) water and throw them back in. I've had the same ones since I bought the 405. Since there's 4 of them, it probably wouldn't be a big deal to replace them one at a time when they start getting unviable, but I wouldn't replace them all at once.

A great trick I use with my 405 is putting poly-fil (pillow stuffing) in the bottom basket. I replace it weekly during pwc's (so it doesn't have time to significantly develop BB) and you'd be shocked how filthy that stuff gets after a week. It catches all the fine particles and makes my water crystal clear.

I agree ... replace one or two at a time if they're really bad but not all at once.
That's what I did with my 404 ... i had the original 4 pads in there for over 3 years ... but where still in good shape. Waited a couple of months, replaced two, let the bacteria grown and a month later the other two.

Poly-fill IMO is the perfect partner for the foam pads ... as good as they are, they're just too much micro gunk that gets past the foam. It's amazing how well Poly-fill just gives the water that extra clear look.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Noticing you're a SW tank, I wouldn't even have them in there at all. Or, at a minimum, rinse them religiously every week. If you have LR then you don't need to do it in tank water, tap is fine since your bacterial filtration is happening elsewhere.

FWIW: When you post a question try to distinguish between SW and FW. The answers are sometimes quite different