Doubts On Cleaning My Tank... Please Help Confirm If Im Doing This Rig

[horze]

Hey guys, ive got a 2226 eheim canister filter running tropical 4 foot. Mainly community fish.
 
Ive had the tank running for a good 4 years, however as i  been doing it more often i get to understand a little more about it. Now im not loosing fish dramitcally, every now and then i do loose one but i just wanted to get a confirmation if i am doing the clean right
 
step 1 close taps unplug canister remove canister from its spot.
 
step 2 remove all big rock,  stirr up gravel and using a gravel cleaner, suck about 3 buckets worth of water and dump it.
 
Now this is where im abit unsure.
 
step 3 open canister. Take plastic mesh off. Remove white filter, throw it out.. (i use a new one every tank change) Remove tray that holds the substrat (biological media) (loosely not in packets) put into a bucket of tank water. 
 
step 4 remove second tray which holds the ceramic mech noodles loosely, rinse blue filter with tap water (i replace every second change). put this tray in the bucket of tank water. 
 
NOW im left with alot of crap and water in the bottom of canister filter. what i have been doing is dumping half of it...    however this leaves alot of crap in bottom.. Am i safe to completely dump all thats left in canister.
 
And also on the bottom of the trays that hold the mech and bio media, its full of crap. can i empty these trays to get rid of that crap? And can the noodles be cleaned with tap water.? I know bio media cannot or you kill the good bacteria.
 
after i put back all the trays and stuff i fill canister with the tank water i used to hold the trays but not complete amount as on bottom of bucket there is crap
 
thanks for your help in advance guys

 

[BerryAttack]

don't move around gravel but use the vacuum to clean it up.. faster and better.
never use tap water when cleaning the filter.. that is why you are kill your fish.. its recycling your tank.. so what your 4 year old filter was suppose to be is not once a month old etc etc. so when you clean the gravel, and leaving the vacuum in pulling out water use that to rinse the filter media in a bucket... and you can dump all the water in the filter.. that's fine.
when adding in water treat for the whole tank so that everything is safe.

 

[sawickib]

Never remove all the filter media unless its completely falling apart, it has all your good nitrifying bacteria, however you can dump out ALL the crap, thats the stuff that decomposes and creates ammonia and nitrrates, every month your supposed to rinse the filter media in tank water in a bucket, if you would like to remove decor to get rid of more crud that ok but it can stress the fish a lot if you remove decor every week.

 

[horze]

Thanks for the reply guys
@BerryAttack, when you mean treat for the whole tank.. are you referring to the chlorine neutraliser? If so i usually only put the amount that i added in water. EG my tank is 160 litre a filter and water change usually i am replacing 70 litres. So i usually put in the amount it tells me for 70 litres... should i be putting in for the whole 160 amount?
 
@ sawickib, when you say never remove filter media unless falling apart, do u mean never remove it from the trays? or never replace the filters? or never remove the trays out of the conister. Please keep in mind my filter sits in the cradle trays not in mesh bags. I usually clean my tank every 2 months which is a little longer than recommended but i find that it holds up quite well, maybe because the pump is rated for tanks bigger than a 160 litres
 
Also i have not changed my subtrat pro (bio media) or my ceramic noodles since i set the tank up about 4 years ago?  is that something that should be changed or?

 

[sawickib]

You can take the media out for cleanings but not replace them, im sure youd just be able to clean out the trays just to un-clog it if it is. You should be doing a water change of at least 10% weekly, and clean the filter monthly, whats the tank stocked with? No leave the ceramic noodles, you have so many fish die, because youve had your tank pretty much recycle everytime you did the filter media change. 
 
And about the dosing full tank, i think you can only dose full tank with prime, but with others you dose the amount you add, someone plz correct me if im wrong.

 

[horze]

thankyou for the help sawickib, just to confirm, youve said that ive pretty much recycle my tank everytime i did the filter media change, is this because i change the filters?  just keep in mind its only the filter pads (blue and white) that ive changed, ive never changed the bio media or the mechanical media
thanks again 

 

[sawickib]

Well yes you left "some" bacteria in the filter, taking out a lot, which raised the ammonia and nitrate levels. 

 

[horze]

ok so best thing is to not change the white and blue filters?

 

[sawickib]

yea, best to leave all biomedia, with the exception of carbon, and things like plastic trays.

 

[horze]

ok sawickib, thankyou i was always under the impression, the white filter (wool) should be changed regularly

 

[sawickib]

The mesh acts a lot like sponges and expands to hold a lot of bateria.

 

[bricko]

You can rinse your filter media in tank water, remove from the trays and place in a bucket of tank water and clean the trays under the tap to clean off excess gunge.  You should completely remove the water from your canister and even rinse that out with tap water if you desire.  Pace media back in trays and put trays back in empty clean canister before repriming.  Replace wool pad as this is mainly for polishing water though there are some bacteria present in there but should cause a mini cycle.  Never replace bio media unless it is disintegrating (should last years!)
 
You only need to clean your canister filter every 3 months or so, or when you can visibly see that the flow is decreasing, not every water change.
 
With the water change, do not stir up the bottom of the tank as this could release pockets of gas into the tank as well as loads of crap, just use a gravel vac and clean in sections.  Just pick a square foot each water change and you will have cleaned your entire gravel over 4 weeks assuming you perform 1 water change per week. Ensure you perform weekly 25% water changes
 
Hope this helps

 

[simplyfish]

I have an eheim filter and the white filter layer is a lot less substantial than ones in other filters I have, I Usually like to give my sponges a squeeze to get some of the 'gunk' out and help the flow. The eheim ones seem to disintegrate if you try this so I've taken to replacing every 3 months instead. This layer is at the end of the flow and already gone over the noodles etc so feel this is more of a 'polishing' layer anyway and the biological filtration has already gone on.
 
+1 for not rinsing anything in tap water, you risk killing off the bacteria you want, I dip my cage in and out of a bucket of tank water to lightly rinse heavy particles away.
 
Doing this I find I lose very few fish to water issues in that tank.

 

[horze]

Thanks for taking the time to reply back guys, huge help. im actually going to print it incase i forgot a step for next clean

 

[orangegecko]

What kind of 'bag' do you guys use to keep your biological and mechanical media in place while in the filter?  I have an Eheim external canister and plan on doing a cleaning in the next month or so and wanted to place them in bags so when I take them out they don't go all over the place.
 
I need 'bags' for these two: