How And When To Change Canister Filter Cotton

[Deleted member 107737]

Hi all,

I have a canister filter with a new piece of cotton fitted. The tank is newly cycled and i have 2 fancy gold fish in a 40 gallon tank with plants.

im doing 1 water change a week.

1) how often should i take out the cotton to clean it in tank water??

2) how often should i replace the cotton

3) if you replace the cotton, how does it work with transferring the good bacteria?? im a bit confused. the canister also has ceramic rings meddle and bottom trays...cotton is at the top

thanks,

dave

 

[SmexxyNick]

Everytime i do a water change with my cotton every Sunday, i replace it, I just use the insides of a pillow, Very effective and the bacteria transfers very fast, Little to no loss of beneficial bacteria 

 

[dgwebster]

i've had the same piece in my filter for the last 2 years. Every 3-4 months I rinse the canister out, give the cotton a good wringing in some fresh dirty tank water, put it back in.

 

[deftuch]

i used to use pillow stuffing.now i just cut my own from a bulk sheet of pond filter foam, i can fit lots in the top try of my filter and change it every 2 months when i clean out my filter.

 

[fluttermoth]

1) how often should i take out the cotton to clean it in tank water??

With goldies, weekly, although you might not need to do it that often while they're so small; just open it up and have a look; it it looks very dirty, wash it

 
 

2) how often should i replace the cotton

You'll get to a point where it goes 'clumpy' and won't make a nice even layer. Then you chuck it out.
 
 

3) if you replace the cotton, how does it work with transferring the good bacteria?? im a bit confused. the canister also has ceramic rings meddle and bottom trays...cotton is at the top

Floss isn't a very good home for bacteria, so you don't get that many colonising it; they're mostly in your rings. You won't loose enough bacteria to hurt your cycle just changing the floss

 

[deftuch]

1) how often should i take out the cotton to clean it in tank water??

With goldies, weekly, although you might not need to do it that often while they're so small; just open it up and have a look; it it looks very dirty, wash it

 
 

>>2) how often should i replace the cotton

You'll get to a point where it goes 'clumpy' and won't make a nice even layer. Then you chuck it out.
 
 

3) if you replace the cotton, how does it work with transferring the good bacteria?? im a bit confused. the canister also has ceramic rings meddle and bottom trays...cotton is at the top

Floss isn't a very good home for bacteria, so you don't get that many colonising it; they're mostly in your rings. You won't loose enough bacteria to hurt your cycle just changing the floss

 

i have bottom layer of ceramics, then is my foam, and lastly the filter floss with about 30 bio balls on top, i have a first and last stage with bio media in, also i usually keep the very first layer of floss until the next time i chage the floss. i just make that bit the last bit to go through, they all end up evenly dirtied in the end anyway. then next time il chuck the bit i had left over and switch them around again

if you get your mechanical layers correct your floss will last longer, i have 3 layers of foam. coarse medium and fine, that seems to get most of it, and the floss only really polishes like it should. if you only use floss in your filters they clog up wayy too fast!

 

[fluttermoth]

Oh, and for all the people using pillow stuffing; do be careful, a lot of the makes now are treated with a fire retardant that is extremely toxic to fish.
 
You'd be much safer buying a roll of proper aquarium floss; it's pretty cheap and will last you near enough a lifetime!

 

[dgwebster]

Oh, and for all the people using pillow stuffing; do be careful, a lot of the makes now are treated with a fire retardant that is extremely toxic to fish.
 
You'd be much safer buying a roll of proper aquarium floss; it's pretty cheap and will last you near enough a lifetime!

 
I second this, at £5 for 2m x 1m of the stuff off of ebay, its not costly. 

 

[CoryLover95]

You don't need to replace it until it's literally falling apart - but I'd say rinse it every 1-2 weeks.  Just look at it; if it looks really yucky give it a quick rinse...

 

[Sophie]

Oh, and for all the people using pillow stuffing; do be careful, a lot of the makes now are treated with a fire retardant that is extremely toxic to fish.
 
You'd be much safer buying a roll of proper aquarium floss; it's pretty cheap and will last you near enough a lifetime!

 
I second this, at £5 for 2m x 1m of the stuff off of ebay, its not costly. 

 
I third this. When Fluval charge £11 something odd for 6 "Polishing Pads" I get a roll of filter pads and cut them to shape and put in the filter

 

[deftuch]

this issue has been raised on a different thread, there are pros and cons of each method, both work as good as each other and are ten times cheaper than the real thing, some filters are unique in shape and a really hard job to cut the floss to a good fit, so pillow innards would be prefered in that case. while others are just round in shaper and easy to deal with. i have used both now and ive got loads to spare