How Often Do You Do It?

[Honeythorn]

Help - my manual says "filter maintenance" - WEEKLY - rinse filter sponges in bucket (water taken from tank) - and rinse the carbon cartridges under tap water - having read replies - I'm confused ................ is weekly too often?

Weekly is far too much. If you keep washing your sponges like that you'll struggle to keep a stable cycle in the filter. Just wash the sponges in tank water once every month or two, or when you see the flow slow down.

You don't really need carbon in your filter unless you've been using medications in the tank and need to remove them. If your tank is healthy then you could remove the carbon completely and replace with another ordinary sponge like the rest.

As for my tanks, I change 50% once a week on all 4 tanks and do the filters when the flow slows down. In the 3 gallon moss tank I don't replace with dechlorinated water, I add some of the used tankwater to provide the mosses with fish waste to use ( there are no fish or anything live in this tank, just moss for now )

 

[Miss Wiggle]

40% water change once a week, clean the filters whenever the flow rate drops, usually only once everry couple of months.

 

[Attilauk]

i do a weekly 30-40% water change

i swap the floss in my external filter once a month.

i have to clean out the internal filter about every other week when the flow drops

 

[Inchworm]

I change about 1/3 of the water in each tank weekly and rinse out the filters that seem to need it.

 

[kribensis12]

^ True that!

 

[drobbyb]

I am having really problems with my 4ft tank.
I have 4 panda cories, 2 synodontis shoutendeni, 1 amano shrimp. 1 bgkf. All are small atm. But the tank has beard algae and i have to clean the glass and filter every week. The other tanks i think would be fine if left longer. What am i doing wrong?

Black beard algae is usually a sign that you have carbon dioxide in your tap water.

Check out this link for algae info: http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

 

[Tolak]

Depending on the tank & stocking, 50% weekly for larger growouts & pairs, a couple times weekly to daily for fry. Filters go by eye, one big advantage to box & sponge filters. Sponges are mainly bio, they get cleaned once a month in most tanks, except for hatching/fry tanks, which get cleaned about twice monthly.

Floss in box filters depends on stocking, a pair in a 20 doesn't produce much waste, can go a month or more. A breeding tank with plecs & fry needs to be cleaned once a week.