# Filter cleaning, how often



## john arnold (5 Oct 2018)

hey

How often should i clean my filter sponges, i know its ok to clean under tap water as i only rinse biomeadia in tank water just not sure if i should do it once a month or not so many diff opinions?


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## zozo (5 Oct 2018)

All the different opinions originate from all the different conditions fish tanks can be run. E.g. heavily planted, sparsely planted, heavily stocked, sparsely stocked, lots of algae or very little algae, what and how much do you feed, do you water change weekly and how much. How is your avarage husbandry? etc. etc. And all in between..  Next to the size of the filter and the turnover this all has effect on its maintenance.

So it is something you should learn and experience along the way.. I general consensus once a month is a normal schedule for a start. If you notice flow reduction before this month is over you might do it more often.. And if you don't you might sufice with a longer periode.

Don't worry to much about distroying the filters bacterial capacity.. It repopulates rather quickly, a sufficiently planted and mature tank has enough bio capacity in its substrate etc. and will help a filter to repopulate with bacteria in no time.


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## john arnold (5 Oct 2018)

Ok cool, its heabily planted and 50% water change a week, i just wondered if fiddling with it every month would upset it, ill go along with that
Cheers


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## BubblingUnder (5 Oct 2018)

Depends on filter type / size. For example I use an internal filter correctly sized for my tank. When flow rate drops due to clogging I rinse the filter sponge in tank water. I've got it down to a fine art (every two weeks seems about right for me). Now I just need to find an internal filter manufacturer whose filter opens easily so I can clean the sponge, I have to fight with it every two weeks to open it up !!


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## dw1305 (5 Oct 2018)

Hi all, 





john arnold said:


> Ok cool, its heabily planted and 50% water change a week, i just wondered if fiddling with it every month would upset it.


If you have a <"filter intake sponge"> it should reduce the need to open the filter. I clean the pre-filter regularly (every week to 14 days), but this takes seconds under the tap.

If you can keep the mechanical fitration outside of the filter, then you should be able to leave the filter a lot longer between cleanings. I find that if flow has dropped it is almost always because the hoses are dirty, rather than that the biological media has become clogged.  

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (5 Oct 2018)

john arnold said:


> Ok cool, its heabily planted and 50% water change a week, i just wondered if fiddling with it every month would upset it, ill go along with that
> Cheers



In case of a well planted  and biologicaly mature tank with regular water changes a filter actualy more works as a mechanical filter to clean out free floating solids. And the tank itself does the rest..  I've ran many tanks like that on sponge filter only and even swapped the media with brand new one starting over from scratch. Never experienced any negative effect. A well planted and fully matured aqaurium compensates this without any issues. 

Not even to mention that sponge only also has a biolocal filtration propperty, it doesn't necessarily need a specialy developed biological filter media.

So there is no need to get carried away with all the horror stories out there and the on this stories related given advices. If a tank crashes after a filter clean, there definitively is something else going on in the tank, that likely was running on an edge and going to crash anyway at one time without touching the filter.


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## dw1305 (5 Oct 2018)

Hi all, 





zozo said:


> If a tank crashes after a filter clean, there definitively is something else going on in the tank, that likely was running on an edge and going to crash anyway at one time without touching the filter.


That is the truth. 

You seem to get this a lot on <"cichlid keeping forums">, either after too thorough a cleaning, a power outage, or when the filter hasn't been turned back on immediately after cleaning. 

That was actually where I started the cycling threads, telling cichlid keepers that they could mitigate against this type of failure <"if they had plants">, a substrate, didn't try have simultaneous nitrification and denitrification in the filter, concentrated on oxygen not ammonia etc. It would be fair to say that it wasn't <"universally well received">.    

I'm better these days, but when I first got internal power filters I often used to find that I'd turned them off for cleaning, and then failed to turn them back on again, and they had been off for the entire week, and I only found out on the next cleaning day. 

With the trickle filters or air pumps, I'd had before, you knew if the filter is on because you have the noise of the water, but with internal filters they are silent. 

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (5 Oct 2018)

dw1305 said:


> It would be fair to say that it wasn't <"universally well received">.



I also can not understand why these diehards cling to such a completely outdated idea. I guess they all realy think if it works in lake Tanganyika it must work in an aqaurium as well.  Than they call it Biotope aqaurium? Without realizing that any plantless biotope diorama can't be further away from natural biotope than possible. Defending plantless fish keeping is full lenght ignorance, based on nothing. Than if one likes it biotope look a like without aqautic vegitation, at least make it a riparium with marginal emersed vegitation fed from the tank water or use a planted sump out of view.


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## dw1305 (5 Oct 2018)

Hi all,


zozo said:


> Than if one likes it biotope look a like without aqautic vegetation, at least make it a riparium with marginal emersed vegetation fed from the tank water or use a planted sump out of view.


That is it.

I'm not a hard water cichlid keeper, but it often comes up on S. American Cichlid forums that the natural habitats that you collect Discus, _Apistogramma_ spp. etc. come from don't have any aquatic plants, but I think the important point is "collect", basically the fish are on hold until it rains again and they can disperse through the flooded forest.

There is also depends how you define "aquatic plant", in the Igapo and Varzea "flooded forest" the trees (and their seedlings) are in standing water for  many months, basically like a mangrove, and in my opinion that makes them as much aquatic plants as terrestrial ones.

Have a look at TomC's web site <"A Colombian Beauty – _Apistogramma_ sp. ‘Kiemenfleck/Gill-spot’">, and this is from <"Apistogramma forums: Orinoco biotope question">.





cheers Darrel


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## zozo (5 Oct 2018)

dw1305 said:


> There is also depends how you define "aquatic plant"



I think we would be done rather quickly with truly defining aquatic plant sp. minus the algae.. Hence we are named Aqautic plant society, but maybe 90% of what we discuss are Bog plants rarely to be found permanently submersed aqautic in nature.  This idea is still swept under the carpet for the majority of the public, anyway till now the majority around me i told so that is why your plants look like dying at first, all looked at me as if hearing a thunder without clouds.. 

But indeed your definition is even further to the truth.. If you look at the list of suitable terrestrial plants we could make use off without to much ad o. We have about limitless options, maybe limited space.

http://www.hydro-culture.net/plants.html

Minus the trees all growing in the jungle where the streams run through before they reach and feed that so called plantless aqautic biotope.

A question that comes to mind in this discussion.. Did those plantless biotope keepers ever think about, where in nature all that leaflitter they also throw in comes from. For so far plantless biotope.


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## john arnold (5 Oct 2018)

Wow that sparked off a lot, yeah both tanks have caniters, the oase has prefilter and fluval has a lit of sponges, bith have biohome ultra biomass in as it appeared to be the best ever, a lot of it, ill have a look at my oase as its been a new tank and a month now just to chevk its all cool, so people do biotopes with no plants, does not seem right at all, ive only been doing this hobby for 5 months now but i couldnt imagine a tank without plants thsts why i dont want big cichlids although they are well nice, im happy with appistos and rams, and smaller shoal fish, but plants is the main target fir me


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## Konsa (5 Oct 2018)

Hi
Every tank is different as different fish load and feeding going in.
As Darrel says if U are able to do mechanical filtration outside of your filter makes life easier.I run 3 tanks. Since I started using prefilters  its been lime this .1st one   shrimp only with integrated back sump with filter floss(changed 3-4) weeks as first stage is not been cleaned year and a half and all sponges and biomedia are spotless.Second tank prefilter sponge( cleaned weekly)  never cleaned yet for about year.3rd tank with massive bioload prefilter sponge and after 8 months opened took purigen out and closed it again.
The oase are super cool filters for that.On others U must have in mind thst the prefilter sponge muct not be too fine or impact the flow as will clog fast or too coarse as will miss finer debris.I find the eheim pickup sponges to be the ideal ppi for me.
Regards Konsa


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## Zeus. (5 Oct 2018)

I clean my FX6 for my 500L high tech tank weekly, but I dont have any sponge prefilters just a DIY SS mesh on the intake, mainly to stop small fish shrimp getting sucked in



There is always plenty of detritus in the sponges and it doesn't take that long to clean either. I normally squeeze the sponges out first in the water in the canister and its always very dirty/cloudy afterwards. Unfortunately with a complex plumbing I dont clean the pipes hoses out that regular as it can take 4 to 6 hours ATM. But I am hoping to simplify the plumbing so it can be done more frequently


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## J@mes (5 Oct 2018)

For what it’s worth my in experience (17 days!) the flow dropped dramatically when I left cleaning the prefilter 3 days past a week. It’s the Oase Biomaster 600 with coarse prefilter sponges. Once cleaned it was like new regards the flow.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (5 Oct 2018)

I have two external canisters with pretty much the same media in both, course sponge, fine sponge and some sintered glass in the bottom both with SS strainers for the shrimp. Ones an Aqua one which is quite high turnover about 1250 lph and the other a Tetratec 600 which if I'm honest runs well below the stated. I find the Tetra is a lot better at trapping particles and needs cleaned more often. When I empty the Aquaone canister there's some mulm in the bottom bit the Tetra seems a lot better at trapping particles. Both changed monthly usually. I can't believe how much dirt is in the Tetra canister at time! I guess some canisters are just better designed than others.


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## Lee iley (5 Oct 2018)

I do mine once a month usually. It is a aqua manta fx400 it's a good filter. It has 3 compartments top one there are 3 different types of sponge/wool 2nd one there ceramic rings and 3rd there is plastic bioballs and I also put in some ea bacteria gel balls in every month. I do want a better one with a built in heater eventually.


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## Oldguy (5 Oct 2018)

I am very old school and use an under gravel filter as my pre-filter to a couple of canister filters. The canisters are filled with porous clay balls from a hydroponic supplier. I clean the canisters about once a year, but they always smell sweet and have very little dirt in them. Lots of simple to grow plants and lightly stocked with small fish and shrimps. The gravel is quarts with florite added and is a mass of roots. Setup running for about 10 years.

The small surface skimmer is cleaned under the tap each week.

Found foam filters to clog quickly and quickly reduce flow. DIY foam filters based on tubular pond filters and mounted on drilled plastic tubes with a power head on them are very cheap to make but do need attention when flow drops and the diametre of the foam reduces, I have also used these as pre filters for canisters. Its a suck it and see with foam.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (5 Oct 2018)

Oldguy said:


> I am very old school and use an under gravel filter as my pre-filter to a couple of canister filters. The canisters are filled with porous clay balls from a hydroponic supplier. I clean the canisters about once a year, but they always smell sweet and have very little dirt in them. Lots of simple to grow plants and lightly stocked with small fish and shrimps. The gravel is quarts with florite added and is a mass of roots. Setup running for about 10 years.
> 
> The small surface skimmer is cleaned under the tap each week.
> 
> Found foam filters to clog quickly and quickly reduce flow. DIY foam filters based on tubular pond filters and mounted on drilled plastic tubes with a power head on them are very cheap to make but do need attention when flow drops and the diametre of the foam reduces, I have also used these as pre filters for canisters. Its a suck it and see with foam.


Been considering under gravels again lately and as you have rig it up to an external canister. I think UG's are starting to make a bit of a come back.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


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## DutchMuch (6 Oct 2018)

to answer the title:
ive cleaned my hydor prof. 350 on my high tech 40b around 2 times in the 40b's lifespan which has been 1 1/2 years.


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## john arnold (6 Oct 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> to answer the title:
> ive cleaned my hydor prof. 350 on my high tech 40b around 2 times in the 40b's lifespan which has been 1 1/2 years.


Blimey that is a long time, you see so many diff ways i lnow it depends on your setup but well ill see how it goes, it seems we all have a diff approach, thanks everyone


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## DeepMetropolis (6 Oct 2018)

I have an biomaster 600 clean the prefilter once a week.. Really easy to do with that system and the rest i leave once in a while o rinse one of the sponses like one every few months...


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## DeepMetropolis (6 Oct 2018)

I have an biomaster 600 clean the prefilter once a week.. Really easy to do with that system and the rest i leave once in a while o rinse one of the sponses like one every few months...


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## DutchMuch (6 Oct 2018)

john arnold said:


> Blimey that is a long time, you see so many diff ways i lnow it depends on your setup but well ill see how it goes, it seems we all have a diff approach, thanks everyone


yep speaking of the thing, i just cleaned it today haha
now to wait another year 1/2 lol!

Yep everyone does it their own way and what they deem fit, honestly there is no WRONG way IMO, unless its "obviously" incorrect. Such as knowing u have a 4" mulm build up in your filter, thats the wrong way cause it will clog ur filter and do damage to a little but of everything, but in my case, i dont clean it but annually- and there is no mulm, there is just bacteria and this is due to the medium i have in the canister, etc, and how i do my tank maintenance. 

All depends on something, cause and effect! all depends on the person  and the tank!


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## john arnold (7 Oct 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> yep speaking of the thing, i just cleaned it today haha
> now to wait another year 1/2 lol!
> 
> Yep everyone does it their own way and what they deem fit, honestly there is no WRONG way IMO, unless its "obviously" incorrect. Such as knowing u have a 4" mulm build up in your filter, thats the wrong way cause it will clog ur filter and do damage to a little but of everything, but in my case, i dont clean it but annually- and there is no mulm, there is just bacteria and this is due to the medium i have in the canister, etc, and how i do my tank maintenance.
> ...



Yeah I get thst now..so ill carry on in my own way and see the results

Cheers


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## bugs (16 Oct 2018)

BubblingUnder said:


> Depends on filter type / size. For example I use an internal filter correctly sized for my tank. When flow rate drops due to clogging I rinse the filter sponge in tank water. I've got it down to a fine art (every two weeks seems about right for me). Now I just need to find an internal filter manufacturer whose filter opens easily so I can clean the sponge, I have to fight with it every two weeks to open it up !!



After trying a number of internal and external filters over the years, I keep coming back to Juwel internal filters. Good capacity, well made, easy access and with a fine filter at the top of the media stack there's very little that causes the media below to clog. None of those useless suction cups to fail either! The only other filter I would consider is the Eheim Classic external filters. I had one before they were regarded as "Classic" and it was great - far better than the newer Eheim Thermo I had years later.


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## azawaza (17 Oct 2018)

I only clean my filter when the flow gets too slow. And when doing so it’s just simply dunking the bio media in aged water, to remove detritus. I have a mesh at my inlet so most gets stuck there and are removed during weekly or biweekly maintenance.


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## dw1305 (17 Oct 2018)

Hi all, 





bugs said:


> The only other filter I would consider is the Eheim Classic external filters. I had one before they were regarded as "Classic"


I've been a <"long time user of these">, and they still offer the advantages of simplicity and robustness. 

Whenever discussion of filters comes up, I find it useful to remember Clive's (@ceg4048) fundamental description of a filter as "_a pump in a bucket_".

cheers Darrel


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## roadmaster (17 Oct 2018)

Size of tank ,.numbers of fishes,food's offered to same determine how often my filter's get serviced.
Always mindful that the filters don't really remove anything, but rather trap the dirt.mulm,detritus until such time as I clean the filter media.
Monthly for me.
,.


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## nel.pogorzelska (17 Oct 2018)

I'm cleaning the sponge on the intake weekly (tested it, after 2 weeks flow slows rapidly). Canister filter on it's own and HOBs on other tanks are getting cleaned when I see that flow is too weak to my liking. I have a tank with HMF too, never cleaned it yet.


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