I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank that has been taken over by platies, but that is another topic.
I use two Marineland Emperor 280 HOB filters with a filter assembly and the second spot with ceramic media. I normally do a 10 gallons PWC every 7-10 days and then try to do a thorough cleaning once per month. Along with that I take the filters apart and clean them as well.
In between, I take out the filter assembly and backflush the debris that has accumulated. It seems that the output of the HOB unit does not improve very much.
Now, even if I remove both filter trays, there does not seem to be as much flow through the filter as there should be. However, with them both installed, water backs up and bypasses the filter media, still at a seemingly slow rate
1) Can anyone offer some help trying to figure out what the problem is?
As a side question:
The frugal in me wants to know if there is a different way to clean the filters to get a longer life out of them. Currently it is difficult to get more that a few weeks, especially after stirring up the gravel.
Thanks for all your help
I use two Marineland Emperor 280 HOB filters with a filter assembly and the second spot with ceramic media. I normally do a 10 gallons PWC every 7-10 days and then try to do a thorough cleaning once per month. Along with that I take the filters apart and clean them as well.
In between, I take out the filter assembly and backflush the debris that has accumulated. It seems that the output of the HOB unit does not improve very much.
Now, even if I remove both filter trays, there does not seem to be as much flow through the filter as there should be. However, with them both installed, water backs up and bypasses the filter media, still at a seemingly slow rate
1) Can anyone offer some help trying to figure out what the problem is?
As a side question:
The frugal in me wants to know if there is a different way to clean the filters to get a longer life out of them. Currently it is difficult to get more that a few weeks, especially after stirring up the gravel.
Thanks for all your help