Time for a filter change?

[Posivated]

Whenever I do a water change (50% every sunday) I turn off the filter and heater and clean them. I swish the filter media around in the tank water, clean the algae and other debris off the inside of the filter, and clean the pipe that sucks the water into the filter. Now, everytime I do this and I plug it back in after the water change is finished, the filter erupts out a seemingly ridiculous amount of debris back into the tank. It eventually clears up after 10 minutes or so, but should there but that much dirt left to be thrown back into the tank?

 

[jlk]

When was the last time you removed the filter housing/tubes and actually scrubbed out the inside of them? You may be surprised how much debris settles on the bottom of the filter housing itself (its actually quite gross...). Removing the media to a bucket of tank water (and giving a good swishing) followed by removing the filter housing/tubing and scrubbing this out well should be done as part of monthly (or every 2-3mths depending on how quickly debris accumulates)) maintenance. The housing itself can be cleaned with plain tap water as long as your tank is happily cycled. If this doesn't seem to help with the debris issue, then I would start cleaning the media a bit more and consider adding some floss to the filter housing as well. Hope this helps!

 

[Posivated]

I have an Aqeon quietflow 30, as far as I can tell there isn't any tubes or anything super complicated. I usually take off the cylinder that is put into the tank and clean the inside of that. Then I also clean the inside walls of the filter housing, I guess I'm not getting down far enough, next time I clean it I'll just take it off. Thanks for the help.

Edit: Do you know of anything on my filter that shouldn't get wet? Or is it ok to submerge the entire thing?

 

[jlk]

I have a couple of Aqueons. The debris settles on the bottom of the housing itself. I would not submerge the entire filter itself but simply remove it, stick it in the sink and spray and scrub it out (ie, fill housing with water, scrub, dump out). Are you using the stock (garbage) filter cartridges that it came with? You may want to consider switching gradually to another type of media such as filter foam/sponge. You can just place a piece of filter foam (cut to size) in with the present cartridge and dispose of the original cartridge in a few months or so when it starts to fall apart. Some filter floss (polyfill) can be placed in front of the foam to collect fine debris or in the blank space where the water enters the housing.

 

[Posivated]

Yea, using the stock ones. Going to the petstore today though so I'll see if I can pick up some foam.

 

[jlk]

I use the aquaclear and marineland filter foam in mine. The marineland filter foam (for their canisters- its black but I forget which model type) holds up quite a bit longer than the ac filter foam but costs a bit more. Either works fine though and you can cut it to size as long as you get the larger sized foam.