How often to clean sponge filters

[16gallontanker]

I was wondering how often I should clean my dual sponge filters ? Should I clean them before or after they get really clogged up and looking gross I was wondering because I see alot of youtube channels with sponge filters that look gross. Not going to mention any names though . I'm wondering if they leave them looking like that so there's more beneficial bacterial on the sponge so they clean them as little as possible or what?

 

[Colin_T]

Established biological filters should be cleaned at least once a month. An established biological filter is one that has been running for at least 2 months. You don't clean the filter during this first 2 month period unless it gets really dirty, then you do it every month after that.

Sponges and most other filter media/ materials can be squeezed out in a bucket of aquarium water. When they are reasonably clean you squeeze them out in a second bucket of aquarium water if needed and then put them back in the filter. Tip the bucket/s of dirty water on the lawn/ garden outside. Then top up the tank with some dechlorinated water.

 

[GaryE]

The great usefulness of dual sponge filters is once they're active and alive, you can clean each side on alternate months. If I had a lot of youtube videos, you could be horrified at my filters - I tend to let them run for too long between cleanings. But in an aquarium where you are effectively farming beneficial bacteria and archaea in a filter, too clean is failure.

They do their best work when they look a tiny bit rough.

 

[Magnum Man]

one man's dirt, is another man's gold...
I don't think they need cleaning that often, as long as the flow through the sponge is not reduced, it can be hard to tell, by time alone... I figure it depends on the bio load in the tank, and having that magic, "just right" amount of air bubbling up the tubes, that creates the suction, and if you have other mechanical filtration in the tank, or not... with so many variables, there is not an exact answer...

 

[GaryE]

@Colin_T - I know that you worked with large scale importing and fish breeding facilities. Do you think monthly filter cleaning is necessary in more lightly stocked home aquariums? You must have been taking care of a lot of fish when you were in the aquarium business.

 

[emeraldking]

I was wondering how often I should clean my dual sponge filters ? Should I clean them before or after they get really clogged up and looking gross I was wondering because I see alot of youtube channels with sponge filters that look gross. Not going to mention any names though . I'm wondering if they leave them looking like that so there's more beneficial bacterial on the sponge so they clean them as little as possible or what?

I use in all tanks sponge filters for I use air filtration to keep the costs down with so many tanks. In my case it depends on how clogged the pores of the sponge filter are. And that differs per tank. So, I myself have not a steady interval of cleaning those sponge filters. And in those tanks where I also keep shrimp, I can delay the sponge cleaning even more. For those shimp see those spnge filters as a food paradise.

 

[Colin_T]

@Colin_T - I know that you worked with large scale importing and fish breeding facilities. Do you think monthly filter cleaning is necessary in more lightly stocked home aquariums? You must have been taking care of a lot of fish when you were in the aquarium business.

We did monthly filter cleans in the shop tanks and the quarantine filters were done after every shipment which was every 2-4 weeks.

If we didn't do the shop filters every month we would start to get sick fish. It didn't happen in a big way at 5 or 6 weeks but it started to show as sick fish or more dead fish in that tank compared to normal. If the filters hadn't been done after 2 months then we lost a lot more fish. We just set it up and did filters every month. We didn't do them all on the same day. Each Monday we would do 1/4 of the tanks and work through the shop during the month.

Dirty gravel was another issue and so was slimy glass caused by biofilm. So it became standard protocol to wipe the inside of the glass down at least once a month (some bosses liked the glass spotless so it got done every week in some shops), and we gravel cleaned the substrate every week when doing water changes.

At home it's still a good idea to clean filters at least once a month. Most home aquariums have a lot of fish in and they get fed well. If you have 2 small fish in a 3ft tank then you can get away with cleaning the filter less often but I wouldn't leave it more than a couple of months. The filter media usually gets dirty even if there are only a few fish in the tank and dirty filters encourage harmful disease organisms.

All the water is filtered through the filter media. If the media is dirty and full of fish waste and uneaten or rotting food, then you end up with dirty tank water full of microscopic organisms. Cleaning the filter, gravel and wiping the glass down regularly will significantly help to reduce disease outbreaks in aquariums.

This is also what we did before treating any fish, wipe the glass down, gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter. Then treat the fish.