Cleaning the filter

[Clare_bear]

Hi all, I fear this may be a bit of a silly question but please humour me...

From everything I've read, replacing the components of the filter as per the manufacturers instructions would be a mistake. My filter currently contains, carbon, ceramic rings and sponge. I have bought new carbon bags and I know I need to replace this. I've read at least 5 different ways to clean the filter though!

How do I go about cleaning the rest? Would is be ok to clean it all in tank water (including rinsing the new carbon bag?) The intake tube and inside the filter on the plastic parts all look a bit grimey too.

How clean should the sponge part be? How should I clean this?

Thanks in advance!

Clare

[TropicalFishForums]

[RJMayo]

The only silly questions are the ones you don't ask

Manufacturers recommend changing sponges etc at regular intervals to maximise profit but you are correct that replacing them as stated would be a disaster!

All filtration media should be cleaned in tank water to preserve the muncher colonies so vital to the nitrogen cycle! Gently squeezing the sponges in tank water should be enough to remove any sludge buildup or the vast majority, any ceramic media can also be rinsed clean of detritus buildup in tank water although, if your mechanical filtration (sponges) are configured properly this shouldn't need to be done often.

Unless your carbon is excessively dusty i wouldn't bother rinsing it or rinse it in clean, conditioned water to prevent any particles collecting between the bits of carbon.

Hope this goes some way to answering your questions

[Pilgrim89]

As Mayo rightly said, always rinse and squeeze your sponges in used tank water. Never tap water, that will kill off the colonies on the media that convert ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate (aka "The Nitrogen Cycle").

Due to the need to replace Carbon every 3-4 months I wouldn't bother with it due to the extra cost but if you really need to use it then, again as Mayo said, it only needs rinsing if it is "dusty". If your foam filtration is set-up properly then your biological filtration (ceramic rings, alfagrog etc) won't need 'cleaning' because the mechanical filtration (foams of varying densities) will catch all but the very finest of particles

I'm not sure about manufacturers instructions being reliable or not but I certainly wouldn't take what a pet store would tell you as gospel, they're in it for the money and if they can get you thinking that you need to replace something every month or so then they'll have your money in a heart beat... That's not to say they're all bad, there are some pretty decent ones out there but they're few and far between

Anyway, yeah ... I'll suggest my personal preference on setting up a canister filters' trays/chambers for a fish tank:
Bottom tray (or, first tray to come into contact with the water): Coarse foam on the bottom of the tray, then medium foam, then fine foam.
Middle tray (if there's only two trays then leave this one out): biological media such as Alfagrog or Biohome Mini Ultra ceramics
Top tray (or, last tray to come into contact with the water): biological media such as Alfagrog or Biohome Mini Ultra ceramics

Hope that helps and sorry for the blurt of information here and apologies if it is useless haha

Please ask if you want to know any more

[Clare_bear]

Thanks for the info Mayo and Pilgrim that's fab. I actually only have 1 piece of foam in there. It's a small fluval filter as it's only a small edge tank. I don't think I could fit much more in the cartridge unless I offload the carbon. I'll probably use up the 3 I've just bought but then look into leaving them out.

I currently have, foam at the bottom then carbon then rings although I just followed the instructions on the box when setting it up without really understanding what each layer did but I have a much better idea now 

[plankton]

Carbon should be replaced every 4-6 weeks as it loses it's ability to do anything.
It's usually best to replace it with sponge or ceramics (or anything else useful like alfagrog) and just use it if you get a problem that it can help with.

[squirt]

Sorry to jump in on the thread but just wondering, what does the carbon cartridge do? I'm getting a Fluval U3 next week for my new tank and read the cartridge needs changing every 4 weeks. It's not a massive expense but still a few quid and just wondered how necessary it is?

Also, the biomax biological media that comes with the filter, is it any good? I was going to swap it for some biohome mini or aphagrog but wont bother if the biomax is just as good.

[Gingerlove05]

The carbon filters remove medications, tannins and other very fine particles. The carbon itself is only effective for a few weeks (i think about 6(?)).
I have the u2, u3 and u4 running in my tanks. I don't think any of them have had the carbon filters in them for ages, they're just pads that are separate to the foam pads in the u series and easy to take out. I've also never changed the ceramics, you could change it if you wanted to but i've never had an issue with it


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