# Canister filter Q again....Eheim cleaning?



## Boshk (15 Jan 2018)

Hi guys, just joined the forum.

Decided to come back to freshwater side of fish keeping and would like some help on canister filter.

Previously I had a Juwel 125 tank for my freshwater which had an internal filter, the compartments made it easy, I especially like changing the white filter floss which was cheap to replace, did it weekly and didn't require turning off the pump. (lift lid, remove white pad, replace with new, done) The water flowed from top downwards then got sucked back up to outlet so all the debris or shrimps ended up on the white filter floss

I'm deciding now between the Eheim 350 or 600, JBL e901 and Fluval 306, maybe even the Eheim Prof 4+ 250.
Current tank is around 130L, actually my Red Sea Reefer 170. Not using the sump area (I know, its sacrilegious)

Livestock---probably Cardinal tetra, Gold Laser cory (if I can find them) and Silvertip Tetras. Don't plan on CO2, and for lighting...no idea yet....sold my Radion XR15, maybe a Juwel LED....suggestions welcome.

So questions are:
The Classic I believe flows bottom to top, so does that mean most of the bigger debris ends up at the bottom of the canister? 
Anyone have experience with cleaning the Eheim Classic? 
1) How often? especially the polishing pad/white filter floss
2) their monthly or 2 monthly coarse filter & bio-balls washing

I don't expect a lot of waste/debris


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## jameson_uk (15 Jan 2018)

I guess it depends on how you setup your filter.  I have the classic 600 with the standard media (efimech, blue sponge and substrat pro) and clean it about once every 8 weeks.   I also clean the pipework about once every six months.  When I do clean I only give everything a good rinse in tank water and haven't needed to replace the corse sponge yet.

I don't have any filter floss and I think a lot of people here don't like anything that will clog up the filter.

What I do have is the eheim pre filter which means far less gunk reaches the filter in the first place and I rinse this twice a week.  

I know others clean their filters less often than this.

Sent from my WAS-LX1A using Tapatalk


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## Millns84 (17 Jan 2018)

Canister maintenance depends on a plethora of factors; namely stocking, size of tank, size of filter, media contained in filter etc.

What I'd recommend, although it sounds a pain (at least initially), is opening the filter after two weeks. If it doesn't need cleaning, extend to a month, six weeks, eight weeks etc until you decide that it needs cleaning and/or flow is reduced.

I found that I could leave my JBL e1501 for a month before having to replace the floss and squeeze out the sponges. Every 3-4 months, the bio media had a rinse in old tank water to remove debris. I did start to get huge bypass issues with the JBL, to the point where the whole bottom tray wasn't getting any flow... Recently replaced with a Ferplast Bluextreme 1500.

I used to use an eheim pre-filter but it drastically reduced the flow. The sponge it uses isn't particularly coarse so it gets clogged quickly and limits the amount/type of mechanical media you can actually put in the canister.


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## dw1305 (17 Jan 2018)

Hi all,





Millns84 said:


> I found that I could leave my JBL e1501 for a month before having to replace the floss and squeeze out the sponges.





Millns84 said:


> I used to use an eheim pre-filter but it drastically reduced the flow. The sponge it uses isn't particularly coarse so it gets clogged quickly and limits the amount/type of mechanical media you can actually put in the canister.


The advantage of the pre-filter should be that you can clean it really quickly and easily, I usually do my Eheim one once a week (I have two modules on the pre-filter, but you can add more). 

I prefer a much bigger sponge block (below), but they are harder to hide in small tanks. 




 

If you don't have any floss or fine sponge (PPI 30) in the filter body, you should be able to go much longer between cleaning. I only clean the filter when the hoses are dirty, which is every six months or so. 

cheers Darrel


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## Millns84 (17 Jan 2018)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,The advantage of the pre-filter should be that you can clean it really quickly and easily, I usually do my Eheim one once a week (I have two modules on the pre-filter, but you can add more).
> 
> I prefer a much bigger sponge block (below), but they are harder to hide in small tanks.
> 
> ...



Agreed, it is very quick to rinse and I did that with my pre-filter weekly. However, I decided that the reduction in flow wasn't worth it.

Another alternative, although I've no experience with them, would be an APS filter booster. Essentially, all mechanical filtration is undertaken in the filter booster which would allow you to add more bio/chemical filtration in the main filter and also makes cleaning of mechanical media easier.


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## dw1305 (17 Jan 2018)

Hi all,





Millns84 said:


> ....Another alternative, although I've no experience with them, would be an APS filter booster. Essentially, all mechanical filtration is undertaken in the filter booster which would allow you to add more bio/chemical filtration in the main filter and also makes cleaning of mechanical media easier.


I think this works, we have a thread about these, that might be of interest <"Filter Media Question">.

cheers Darrel


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## Oldguy (5 Oct 2018)

Use the Classic with a pre-filter. Fool proof.


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