Cannister Filter Trouble Or Not? Possibly Mulm? Can Confirm Plz Someon

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

hi, ive just started to notice brownish spots appearing around the outside of my cannister filter on the inside and a fair bit of it at the bottom in clumps which are more like brown clumps swaying around.

just wondering is this most probably mulm? does it need to be cleaned out? i only ask because i think my cannister shot a load of it out into the tank today because when i walked in it was all over the tank and it happened within a few minutes and i have scooped it out for now but im just wondering does this backfire mean its time to clean the cannister filter?

 

[waterdrop]

Well yes, probably time for a clean!

Be sure to use tank water, not tap. Don't be so extremely vigorous that you lose too much bacteria, but sounds like the media needs to come out and the box itself needs a clean.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

so take the media out and put it in a bucket with water from the tank in it?

ive been reading while waiting for a reply that mulm is used for cycling tanks, this true?

is what im seeing mulm in the filter? to try and describe it would be like brownish swaying stuff in clumps at the bottom of the filter.

 

[waterdrop]

o dear, with 54 posts I was assuming you were already cycled, but I shouldn't have

Leave the filter alone if you are still cycling (fishless or fish-in, either way)

but yes, once you are cycled, any time you clean the filter it must be done in tank water -- after all, you spend months of work growing the right two species of bacteria, you don't want to wipe them out with the chlorine/chloramine in tap water!

~~wd~~

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

oh nono haha it is cycled LOL been going bout 2-3months now i think and has 2SD's and 6 cichlids in it, i was just wanting to make sure that this stuff was mulm which ive just read about and if its beneficial to clean it all out or some of it, and also its potential benefits for cycling other filters when starting a new tank which i will be doing next week.

 

[OldMan47]

If you are going to want to use "filter squeezings" to cycle a new tank's filter, I would wait and clean the old filter in the dechorinated new tank. That way anything of value will quickly be deposited on the new filter. Whatever cleaning you do to jump start the new filter, I would certainly not use everything from the old. I have seen how bad the water in my cleaning bucket gets and there is no way I would want a new tank's water to look like that. You are really trying to get enougth of the right bacteria deposited on the new filter that it can quickly become established. You are not trying to be at the end of the cycle the next day.