Filter Cleaning

[ShifyShify]

Just a quick question - I have a Juwel Rekord 70 which I have had for about a month now. I have 0 Amonia 0 Nitrite and am controling the Nitrate with weekly 20% water changes.

At the moment I clean the Wool filter in some of the water removed from the tank during a water change but have not as yet done anything to the other sponges. There are another 4 sponges and I am not sure how often I should be cleaning or changing them ?

Thanks

 

[my fat fish]

its a 3stage filter aint it

the top1 (wool) change/clean each week

the secong 1 every 6 weeks

the next 1 is 12 weeks and i cant rember the other 1 but i can safly say ive never done them all i think i have only dont the top 2 the bottom 1 never gets dirty and i hate that filetr ne ways so im changne it soon

u should 2

 

[ShifyShify]

Thanks Fat Fish, will give that a try

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you just have to think about why you need to clean a filter.

you don't wanna loose the bacteria so your not trying to get that off, all you want to do is remove excess gunk and remove any blockages.

we operate a very simple system for assessing when filters need cleaning, when you do your weekly water change, check the flow rate from the filter, if it's dropped then there's a blockage, you need to remove this so gently squeeze out the sponges and other media in a bucket of tank water to remove the worst of the gunk, that's it. don't try and remember to do this bit every x weeks and that bit every y weeks. just do it when there's a blockage to clear.

 

[andywg]

you just have to think about why you need to clean a filter.

you don't wanna loose the bacteria so your not trying to get that off, all you want to do is remove excess gunk and remove any blockages.

we operate a very simple system for assessing when filters need cleaning, when you do your weekly water change, check the flow rate from the filter, if it's dropped then there's a blockage, you need to remove this so gently squeeze out the sponges and other media in a bucket of tank water to remove the worst of the gunk, that's it. don't try and remember to do this bit every x weeks and that bit every y weeks. just do it when there's a blockage to clear.

While I agree with all of the above I have one thing to add. If you use wool you will quite quickly start to see it discolour. This is because of waste caught in the wool rotting, this will add to nitrates in the tank. I recommend cleaning filter wool at least once a week, possibly more often. This will help slow the rise in nitrates and make the mechanical filtration more effective.

 

[my fat fish]

going off topic here but andywq i love that fish in ur sig! its a frog fish aint it? sorry just wanted 2 ask u for ages now

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you just have to think about why you need to clean a filter.

you don't wanna loose the bacteria so your not trying to get that off, all you want to do is remove excess gunk and remove any blockages.

we operate a very simple system for assessing when filters need cleaning, when you do your weekly water change, check the flow rate from the filter, if it's dropped then there's a blockage, you need to remove this so gently squeeze out the sponges and other media in a bucket of tank water to remove the worst of the gunk, that's it. don't try and remember to do this bit every x weeks and that bit every y weeks. just do it when there's a blockage to clear.

While I agree with all of the above I have one thing to add. If you use wool you will quite quickly start to see it discolour. This is because of waste caught in the wool rotting, this will add to nitrates in the tank. I recommend cleaning filter wool at least once a week, possibly more often. This will help slow the rise in nitrates and make the mechanical filtration more effective.

fair enough, is wool the same as filter floss?? cos we have that and never have nitrate problems.... well except the marine tank but that's filtered by LR so is completely different

 

[andywg]

going off topic here but andywq i love that fish in ur sig! its a frog fish aint it? sorry just wanted 2 ask u for ages now

It is a frogfish, Antennarius striatus. If you check out my threads you can see some posts on him and the other frogfish.

fair enough, is wool the same as filter floss?? cos we have that and never have nitrate problems.... well except the marine tank but that's filtered by LR so is completely different

I would expect so, if it is a very thin wool/cotton-like substance it will be the same. You might not have nitrate problems, but if you rinsed it more often you may notice a drop in the nitrate levels.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

fair enough, is wool the same as filter floss?? cos we have that and never have nitrate problems.... well except the marine tank but that's filtered by LR so is completely different

I would expect so, if it is a very thin wool/cotton-like substance it will be the same. You might not have nitrate problems, but if you rinsed it more often you may notice a drop in the nitrate levels.

yeah thought so. might just try that just for kicks!