# Filter Cleaning



## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

Hello Folks,
one thing that comes up often is cleaning the filter material.

! do not wash the filter materials in tap water it will kill off the benifical bacteria we want in out filters.

I remove some water from the tank for a water change.
using that water in a bucket I clean out the filter material
if it is sponge I squees it in the water to suck water into the sponge
to assist in the flushing of the debris from the filter material.

Cheers


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

great and VERY important information!!  I'm just wondering how often people clean their filters.. I clean my canister filter every 2~3 months, HOB filters whenever water flow is slow.... what about you guys?? I heard people doing this from every 2 weeks to almost never..


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

I clean mine every 2-4 weeks


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## hi-revs (Nov 3, 2010)

I clean my canisters every month. Sometimes a month and a half if I'm too busy. Always before 2 months tho


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## Fishy_Addiction (May 3, 2013)

I used to clean mine weekly but experimented. 6 months ago. Haven't cleaned since and all is well. I prevent myself from doing it because i will clean it too well and end up ridding the filter pad of a majority of the bacteria. 

Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk 2


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

I don't clean out my filters until my nitrates start climbing. I use FX5's, and clean every 3 - 6 months. Over cleaning works against you! test your water instead


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Sponge filters:
When i see them looking clogged up, i squeeze it inside the tank few times to get some sludge out.

Canister filter:
I left my canister filter for 6 months. I only felt like it was time to maintain it recently as I noticed a slow flow coming out. I have an extra set of foam filter that i switch. The dirty ones, I clean with tap water thoroughly and then leave to dry for the next swap. For the biomedia, if there is not a lot of sludge, I NEVER rinse or clean it, I leave it alone. If i had to rinse the biomedia, i use aged water.

Always does a few capful of Seachem Stability after a canister filter cleanse.

But at the end of the day, just wanted to add that there's no one right way to clean a filter


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

I try for a balance in my tanks and can ofter run my canisters for months without problems.
the HOB finters jeneraly need an intake cleaning weekly and a spong cleaning monthly 
as soon as 2 wweks or as long as 4 months depending on the tank.

I belive in overfiltration and most filters are in tanks 1/2 or less the size they are recomended for.
AC70 on a 33 gallon tank.


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## smccleme (Aug 20, 2012)

Am I the only one that just uses tap water? (I do have a carbon filter for the whole house, so I'm not rinsing with chlorinated water) I have two canisters on one tank, and a wet/dry sump on the other. I only clean one, or part of the system at a time, but it is with tap water. I have never had an ammonia/nitrite spike. My understanding is that the beneficial bacteria is everywhere in the tank, and reducing it somewhat in the filter media by rinsing it with tap water is not going to impact the over all conversion process for the tank. Way back in the day I used to use dish soap to clean the filter media - I didn't have problems with that either


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm just glad to see I'm not the only one who goes a few months between cleanings sometimes lol


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

I used to just super clean 1 of 5 sections per month so it didn't really matter if I wiped out the bacteria. Now I'm on a sump with filter socks  sooooo easy just changing the socks once every 3 months.


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## mitchb (Apr 27, 2011)

Every weekly water change I clean out the intake from plant clippings. If I see the water is still going through at the normal rate I leave it and just clean out the ac110. 

Once I notice any drop in gph from the output I will clean it which is usually around 2 months.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I clean my filters once a month in my African tank. They are really dirty if I don't. In my planted tank I clean every 1.5 months but I have a prefilter on the pickup tube so that helps. The aquaclear filters need to be cleaned a couple times a month in my tanks. It really all depends on your bio load. Some say less often is better. Im more of a more often filter cleaner.



smccleme said:


> Am I the only one that just uses tap water? (I do have a carbon filter for the whole house, so I'm not rinsing with chlorinated water) I have two canisters on one tank, and a wet/dry sump on the other. I only clean one, or part of the system at a time, but it is with tap water. I have never had an ammonia/nitrite spike. My understanding is that the beneficial bacteria is everywhere in the tank, and reducing it somewhat in the filter media by rinsing it with tap water is not going to impact the over all conversion process for the tank. Way back in the day I used to use dish soap to clean the filter media - I didn't have problems with that either


The good bacteria is in your filter and substrate. Its not free floating. In theory if you rinse your bio media and sponges under tap water the chlorine will kill off good bacteria. How much I have no idea and I've never seen scientific proof of this. Ive read lots about it and I have seen many new aquarists clean their filters under the tap. Their tank struggles for months because the cycle never fully finishes. Brown algea, dead fish constantly etc..... In fish keeping what works for one doesn't always work for another. If your tank is doing good, doing what you are doing than great. 

As for cleaning with dish soap. I wouldn't recommend that. That's a thing from the past. Keeping the biological system alive is priority #1. That can kill fish and your good bacteria


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

I keep a slop bukket on the floor of my fish room 
any time I scoup out plants floating in the tanks they first go into the slop bucket.
when I change the water in the tanks the bulk of the used water go into plants around my home
the bottom of the bucket goes into the slop bucket
When watering the plants in the fish room I grab up any floating plant matter in the slop bucket and add it to the dirt holding the plants.
With the floating plants removed I i can see if any fri may have been dumped in the bucket.t
I use the slop bucke or the water from the tank to rince out my sponge.
I don't like rincing/squeesing them in the tank as it just muddied the water, better to remove that stuff/sludge


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

I clean my canister once a week, or sometimes every two weeks. 
With sponge filter I just put it in a bucket of luke warm water with some dechlorinator and rinse the sponge off really well. I do not use tank water.
When I clean my canister filter I clean up the sponge the way I do it with sponge filter, and I leave the bio alone. If the sponge looks too dirty I will wash it in the washer. I will put in a new sponge as the old one is being washed.
If the bio media looks really dirty I will rinse them in a bucket of luke warm tap water conditioned with dechlorinator.
I test my water often and my nitrate hardly ever gets close to 10ppm before a water change. My ammonia and nitrite are always zero. I am sure my bio-filtration is sound.


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## hi-revs (Nov 3, 2010)

Good to always use a sponge prefilter on the intake to prevent getting too much crap build up inside the canister.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

What now you tell me!!!

In all honesty for my 3 (well 2 now!) pleco tanks I take the sponge or hob sponge every 3-4 weeks and I rinse filters out under tap water until it is completely clean or looks to be clean water going through =)


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and that is the reason I run 2 filters on each other those though! its so I can do that! 1 tank has 2 sponge filters, and other 2 had HOB and sponge filter.


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## Cichlid433 (Aug 10, 2013)

My filters tell me when they need cleaning, ha ha, but I would say every 2nd month. I do however rinse everything out with tap water. You can never completely clean the media & sponges, so I find there is still enough there to do this, and I've never had a problem.


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## Nicole (Nov 21, 2011)

Lol you guys are all so good...for me, 2-3 times a year


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## Cichlid433 (Aug 10, 2013)

I find my filters let me know. The tank will have too much stuff floating around, the water not being cleaned enough, or like tonight, I'll come home and one of them is making a noise. It does this when its too clogged. Kicks me in the butt, and time to clean them!


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Do you guys clean the tubes when you clean your filter?


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

well this is my theory. i dont mess with my canisters at all. i figure the new water when i do w/c will clean them. so its been about 2years at least. i find my hob's pick up most of the solid and i do them when the basket starts floating. i r lazy it seems...........


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Fish rookie said:


> Do you guys clean the tubes when you clean your filter?


When they become unsightly, yes. Usually every 3rd or 4th cleaning.

I have a fairly big canister on one tank - holds 18 litres of filter media. It's a nitrate factory - if I don't clean it out every 1-2 months, my nitrates start going through the roof and that's even with 2 x 50% weekly water changes. Otherwise, my other canisters are serviced every 3-4 months, hoses once a year.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

how do you guys clean the tube?


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

I don't clean my tubes, as FX5 tubes are black. When I did before, when I used Ehiem filters, I just used a flexible hose brush.


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## randylahey (Jun 25, 2013)

During whatever filter cleaning I feel they're unsightly, I use brushes. They're the only thing that really cleans them and dirty clear hose looks bad. All my hose is short enough to reach from both ends. I got a Marina 3 pack of various sizes and then one for my lily pipes. A little rinse out and I'm good to go.

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

my hoses are over 6 fteet long on my canister filters.
I take 15 feet of braded string/line about 3/16" diameter
I fold it in 1/2 and tie a chunk of scotchbrite scrubber to the center of the string/line
wash flush the string through the hose I prefer to do this outside.
I tie the end of the line flushed through the hose to something fixed, I use my car bumper.
pull the hose over the scotchbrite till it comes out the other end add water and reverse 
the process pulling the cleaner through the hoses


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## smccleme (Aug 20, 2012)

I ordered a couple of these to clean hoses:

2 Brush Heads Wire Flexible U Tube Aquarium Filter Pump Hose Brush 1 5M Long | eBay

$7 delivered to your door.


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

that looks like a good deal.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

I just use some long airline tubing attached to a fish line tied to a piece of magic eraser to clean up my tubes. I pass the airline tubings into the filter tubes, once the airline tubing gets through I just pull the fishing line and the magic eraser will wipe through the inside of the tubes. Usually only one pass is needed. I sometimes bend the filter tube a bit in all directions first to loosen the dirts inside.


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