how often do ppl clean cannister filter?

[Nathan]

how often does everyone clean there filter media in there cannister filter, an how do they do it (obviously using tank water)?

ive never used a cannister filter before just a trickle system (in a jebo tank built in)

just wondering what you all do?

nathan

[Anubias]

Hi Nathan,

As you know I'm new to Discus, but I've had Eartheaters (Green/Red Horseface) for many years. Heres how i've cleaned my cannister:

The thing to keep in mind is that there is good bacteria in there and you don't want to mess with it!

I clean mine about 3 times a year. This may seem excessive to Discus keepers, but with eartheaters, they sift so much gravel that all the muck ends up in the filter, so my flow rate does slow down substantially. I don't even gravel clean with them, they do it for me! With Discus this may be different especially if you have a glass bottom tank and vaccum the waste out on water changes.

Anyway:

First I fill a bucket with tank water.
Turn off the filter, and disconnect the pipes. Now you must act as fast as you can.
Take the media trays out of the filter and dunk it slowly 2-3 times in the bucket, just to remove big bits of waste that has been collected. Resist the urge to go nuts as this will wash away bacteria.
Grab the sponge out of the top tray and squeeze it a few times in the same water.
Empty the residual water in the cannister, give it a quick rinse if you want and fill it will tank water.
Put the trays back in, connect the pipes and turn it on ASAP.

Cheers

[Nathan]

thanx a lot mate, also as you know, i hope for the best with ya discus! hop to hear from you again sometime anubias!

nathan

[FishLover]

I watch my filter flow rate. If it slow down too much, I will clean the cannister. I have two of them One Fluval 304 and one 404) for my tank and I only clean one at a time. it works out about 2 months for each of them. I only clean the sopnge and replace some wools, not the bio-media. I just leave them as they are.

I know people here don't like Fluvals but they were cheap. I just bought some additional O-riings in case they started to leak. I have them running for more than a year now and no problem so far. You really have to watch closely for the seals to make sure they do not leak each time you clean them.

Some people don't like the Fluvals because they have two major problems, one is noise and another is it is hard to prime it start.

I found two solutions to may my life easier. To cut down the noise, you need to get the air trapped in the filter out by tipping it a bit. Mostly it works for me.
To get an easy start, make sure you fill the cannister with water all the way up and tip it a bit to the side to make sure it is really full. You don't need to prime it start any more. It just start going without any problem. I would image this is true for most cannister filters.

Hope this helps.

[Merrilyn]

Thanks for the feedback Fishlover. I've got a few Fluvals running at the moment. Two of the little Fluval 101's have been running on 2 foot breeder tanks for several years now, and apart from a regular clean, they've never needed anything done to them.

I've also got a couple of Fluval 404's that have so far given 2 years of good service.