how to clean a canister.

[mr funktastic]

it is an ehiem i think for a 125 gallon. this woman doesnt like cleaning her tank so she used to get a local fish store person to come out and do it for her. all he did was clean out the filter and do a big water change and gravel vac once a month. she has offered me $120 to go out and clean the tank and i said that seems a little high(but i wasnt complaining lol) and she said that it was quite a bit less than she payed the other guy. i know how to gravelvac and all that but i have never owned a canister. any help would be great.

 

[donttaptheglass]

Be careful, since thats probably where most of her good bacteria is living. It will probably only be necessary to rinse out whatever the first stage of media is in her filter (I would probably guess this will be black floss). Anything above that is most likely where the good bacteria is and should probably be left alone unless it is just particularly nasty so the water doesn't flow through. Should be a fairly quick and simple operation. Just be sure it is properly primed when its put back together.

 

[Tiffi]

I have a Fluval, had Eheim filters before. You can rinse it all in not too cold and not super hot water, gently squeeze it a bit and put it back together. Then you take out the propeller and clean it too, otherwise, it might stop sucking water some day. Some even like to clean the filter material in old aquarium water, because of the chlorine in tap water.

@donttaptheglass: Of course the filter material has all the good bacteria on it. But just gently squeezing it out doesn't hurt anything. I assume that woman has gravel anyway, where bacteria sits on too. And if you want to be really careful (IMO absoulutely not necessary) you can make the water change not at the same time as cleaning the filter.

I clean my filter every 2 month or less and it takes my 10-15 mnutes. That's a rediculous pay you get there! Congrats!

 

[mr funktastic]

lol thats what i said to her after she offered me 120. i was like are u serious lol and she said she paid the other guy nearly $200 i am also setting up her other 90 gallon aquarium that she has just sitting there not running. she took it down because she was having to many problems. maybe i can bump my price up to 200 to clean both tanks sounds fair to me lol.

 

[shawmutt]

During water changes, I drain about a gallon of water off the top (so it's relatively clean) and use that to rinse my media. I don't use tap water because it's chlorinated.

 

[Japola44]

Yah i agree with shawmutt. You are always supposed to use tank water to clean out your medias. I don't think you really need to do much else besides make sure the impellers clean. Don't forget to break the siphon before you open it, you don't want the tank water to spill every where. Also, yyou can put the canister in a bucket first before you crack it open incase water spills.

Mental note: find some one who will pay me 120 bucks to clean a tank lol!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I agree, use tank water and not tap water. Follow the instructions on opening it up, and closing it and priming it. It's usually pretty easy. As for the media, if it's baskets, remove all the baskets and set aside. Take the first stage and rinse it lightly til it's fairly clean, no thick gunk on it. Take the cannister case and rinse out lightly under the faucet to get the gunk out of the bottom. Put all the media back in, close it up, and prime it. Once it's primed, turn it back on.

The only media I rinse is whatever is used in the first stage only. I also rinse or replace the fine filter pad in the final stage as well, as needed. All other media I never touch. The whole process on mine takes less than 10 minutes. Even took less than 10 minutes the first time I did the maintenance, and never owning a cannister before. Should be pretty easy.