# How often to clean filters



## idris (7 Jul 2016)

I recently had to replace my filter and bought one from JBL.

Based on reading I did when I first started keeping fish, for years I've been aiming for a 10% - 20% water change, ideally once a week.
At the same time I'd rinse all the filter media in tank water I was going to throw away, so as not to kill off the bacteria.

As I'm an old git, I have learned to RTFM, but the JBL instructions are very different to what I thought was the right way to do things. Obviously JBL want to sell new filter media as often as possible, but I was wondering what people thought of the regime they suggest.

"Regular maintainence and cleaning of the filter is vital ..." There is no mention of how regularly, though that's obviously dependent on size of the filter and tank and the fish kept.
"Only the pre-filter material [foam] has to be cleaned whilst the remaining filter materal must be cleaned at longer intervals" It says to use luke warm vwater, and does not mention rinsing in tank water that is going to be discarded.
Pre-filter material needs to be "changed every 2 months. They can be rinsed once or twice."
The sintered glass bio balls apparently only need to be rinsed every 6-12 months.
And the remaining foam filter pads should be cleaned every 4-6 months and replaced after 2-3 cleanings.​
To me this seems like not enough cleaning of filter media, and replacing it more often than necessary.


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## DavidW (7 Jul 2016)

I found this depends on the type of filter you have and the filter design. The fluval 405 filter I had needed cleaning more ofter than the JBL e1501 I currently have. I keep discus fish which are quite messy and are feed ox heart mix.
Generally I only clean the filter when the flow get reduced. 

As for the actual cleaning I tend to do this at the same time I do the water change so I clean the sponges and media by rinsing them in the old aquarium water. I never use tap water due to the chlorine. I'd then pop some bacteria filter balls into the filter and set it back up. I also have a pre filter on my filter inlet which needs cleaning every couple of weeks.

Sintered glass is suppose to be good for a few year and ceramic noodles are meant to be changed every year. I tend to take some of the old noodle media out every 6-8 months and add new. This works well for my setup.


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## dw1305 (7 Jul 2016)

Hi all, 





idris said:


> "Only the pre-filter material [foam] has to be cleaned whilst the remaining filter materal must be cleaned at longer intervals" It says to use luke warm water, and does not mention rinsing in tank water that is going to be discarded. Pre-filter material needs to be "changed every 2 months. They can be rinsed once or twice." The sintered glass bio balls apparently only need to be rinsed every 6-12 months. And the remaining foam filter pads should be cleaned every 4-6 months and replaced after 2-3 cleanings.


I don't think that is an unreasonable schedule.

You can rinse your filter material in tap water, you aren't going to kill the nitrifying Archaeae and Bacteria with a brief exposure to low levels (~0.5ppm) of chlorine. Even in the USA, where they use 2-3 ppm, it still won't effectively sterilize the sponge.

I don't have any chemical, or mechanical, media that requires replacement in the filter. I like <"a large sponge block on the filter intake"> to trap mechanical debris before it enters the filter, and I clean this every 10 ~ 14 days. Often even after 6 months the filter media will be pretty clean. I have _Asellus_ and MTS in my filter, and I think these help with biofilm reduction. I've got sponges that are ~10 years old, and I don't envisage ever replacing the glass or floating cell media.

The main-body of the filter <"has any combination of"> PPI10 sponge, Eheim "coco-pops", floating cell media, sintered glass rings, alfagrog etc. and I only clean this media when I clean the filter hoses.

A lot has been written about "dwell time" in filters, based upon the the theory that if the flow through the filter is too fast the micro-organisms won't be able to "grab" passing ammonia. Let's just say I'm sceptical.

I definitely don't want anaerobic denitrification occurring in the filter, so a high through-put of water is helpful in ensuring the filter media remains oxygenated. If you don't have plants then you might want to look at an approach allowing more development of biofilm, and potential for denitrification, but this makes water management much more difficult.

Plant/microbe biological filtration systems are much more flexible and robust than "microbe only" ones, where the filter is often a <"single point of failure">, with potentially catastrophic effects.

If you use a HMF you can reduce any maintenance to an annual event, there is a good explanation of why in Dr Stephan Tanner's <"Aquarium Biofiltration"> article.

cheers Darrel


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## ian_m (7 Jul 2016)

I tend to open my JBL 1501 filter every other water change and rinse the coarse filter pads that seem to accumulate plant detritus (and fish out fish fry from main body). This has been made really easy now as since rearranging my "filter cupboard" it is trivially simple to remove connecting pipes, pull filter out and pop off pump head.

Every couple of months I rinse the two filter foams and probably every 6 months rinse all the ceramic ball and noodles and remove the layer of gunk (and snails) that accumulates in the bottom of the case.


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## idris (7 Jul 2016)

Maybe I've been making more work for myself than I need to! (And I feel an aweful lot better about leting the weekly schedule slide a bit!)

That said, I've always found that when I rinsed the foam, the resulting water was really dark and murky. And I don't think I've ever had particularly messy fish, nor have I been even remotely over stocking. The tank had beenpretty well planted, so it sounds like that take care of a lot of the "cleaning".

Interesting that there are two mentions above of the e1501, which is what I've just bought (to replace a leaking EX1200). Is there any chance that's just a better filter? It seems highly unlikely as they're a very similar design.

Is it possible to over-maintain an aquarium?


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## DavidW (7 Jul 2016)

idris said:


> Is there any chance that's just a better filter?


It's certainly better that the other filter's I've used, and I like the way the filters built and laid out. My water is always crystal clear even once the fish have fed the water clear really quickly. I can't recommend it enough.


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## DavidW (7 Jul 2016)

I was looking to get the e1901 for my new build, but the tank I bought was drilled and came with a sump so I thought I'd go the sump route.


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## Andy Thurston (7 Jul 2016)

wow I feel really lazy now. I have a eheim 2217 which has 2 blue sponge pads in it. Tank is 60l and I clean the blue sponges at approx 6month intervals and even then there is very little dirt on them... there is more dirt on the impeller. I suppose it depends a lot on how many fish/plants and how often you feed


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## britdog (7 Jul 2016)

Iam new to planted tanks but kept fish for many years. Filter manafactures have to give you some sort of guide but they dont know your maintenance schedule or stocking levels. If you dont overfeed the fish which a lot of people through kindness this can cause problems as un eaten food can get sucked into filter. What as worked for me for a number of years is feed a small amount twice per day . Gently syphon substrate once a week  with 20 to 30% water change per week  rinse sponge filters once a month if fairly clean you could extend this you will learn after a couple of if you need to tweak it a lttle.hope thats some help to you
steve


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## idris (7 Jul 2016)

You feed twice a day? I'm closer to twice a week! (Well, more like every other day.)


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## Andy Thurston (8 Jul 2016)

idris said:


> You feed twice a day? I'm closer to twice a week! (Well, more like every other day.)


that depends on the fish and stocking levels. In my planted tank I just have a few tetras and shrimp and I feed them once per week and clean the filters 6 monthly.
When I was running the large heavily stocked tank for the clown loach they got fed heavily once a day and the 2 oversize filters got cleaned bi monthly so 1 each month. The gravel got a thorough vacuum once per week during the 50% waterchange.


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## idris (9 Jul 2016)

Ok, so are there indications, other than flow rate or elicited NO2/NO3 levels, that you're cleaning the filter too often or not often enough?


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## Andy Thurston (10 Jul 2016)

yes the amount of crap in the filter when you clean it


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## idris (10 Jul 2016)

Is that an Imperial Amount or a Metric Amount?


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## Chris Jackson (10 Jul 2016)

idris said:


> Ok, so are there indications, other than flow rate or elicited NO2/NO3 levels, that you're cleaning the filter too often or not often enough?



Well one indication I've had for a need to clean is bacterial blooms in the tank.

My water, in a 10 month old setup went from crystal clear to very slightly milky looking and about 20mins after a water change it would go really milky and then clear over the course of several hours.  Rinsing the filter media and adding ADA Green Bacter has stopped this and I'm back to crystal clear water. This is a sump filter that's been setup for around a year where I'd only ever rinsed the first and end stage media. The central foam and japanese mat sections were thick with sludge but flow through was still ok.


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## idris (10 Jul 2016)

I've never had milky tank water. 
I had a creamy beige sludge in my old filter that was a b*****r to remove: was that bacterial? I've never known what it was or what to do about it.


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