How often to clean filter ?

[esoxlucius]

When you have a sump and you do your weekly water change it is very easy to remove and rinse, or completely change your mechanical filtration. This is the ideal way because if you don't it is the build up of crud on your mechanical filtration which not only begins to hamper flow, but increases nitrate production too, and I suspect all us sump guys do the same, it's just a common and sensible approach.

Saying that, if that cleaning regime works brilliantly for us sump guys, then the same principles should apply to cannisters too shouldn't they? every week cleaning.

But it often doesn't because we hear what a pita they can be to clean, and so maintenance gets put off and the duration between cleaning becomes longer and longer. And all the time the filter gets dirtier and dirtier and adds to the "soup" in the display tank.

If I ran cannisters, which I never will, I'd do them weekly, and just get on with it, until such a time I was so fed up with them, that I'd start running a sump.

 

[tiger15]

Agree with tiger15. I always use at least 2 filters per tank, with one being a sponge filter. There are many low wattage battery airpumps on the market to help with power outages.

My concern is more about power surge that you don’t catch than power outage that can respond to. If there is a temporary power outage in the middle of the night or when you are away from home, a clogged canister can go anaerobic and when the power resumes, it can flush out toxic gases. Canister is a closed system to the atmosphere as opposed to HOB or sump filters, so a few hours power outage of a clogged media is enough to go anaerobic. So a good practice is to clean a canister regularly to reduce waste accumulation, and to open up a canister in power outage before turning back on.

 

[cvar]

I agree that it depends on your own stocking levels, and your detritus levels. Personally, I prefer 2 canisters per tank, to avoid cycling issues.

Our heavily over-planted & over-stocked 125g tank looks like a jungle. I kinda like it that way. Canisters are Eheim 2062 and Eheim 2028, both at once. Lots of gunk & rotted plant matter (eg, 1 cupful) will collect inside the 2 canisters, weekly, unless I use sponge filters on the intakes. Sponge filters are awesome pre-filters that keep the canisters cleaner. Sponges let me avoid almost all of the detritus gunk, and the canisters stay almost gunk free. I clean canisters about every 4 months, but never both canisters at the same time. And I dread lifting the cans, cuz they're so heavy.

For weekly changes, I siphon water out to the backyard trees with a python hose. When it's time to clean a canister, I capture a 20 gallon tub of tank water (outside), and use that to rinse all the messy canister media in tank water, to avoid killing beneficial bacteria. I also capture a pail of clean siphoned water to refill the cleaned canister before I carry it back indoors to reinstall. If my canisters are kept full, they auto restart w/o any suction issues. The pinky floss inside gets changed perhaps once or twice a year. The sintered glass media never gets changed, just rinsed. Takes me about 1/2 hr to clean the bigger 2062, or 20 minutes for the smaller 2028. Both are great canisters.

Tip for the sponges: I slip a tall 2 gallon ziploc bag over the sponge filter intake during weekly water changes, to capture & lift out & dump all the gunk it collects, rather than allow that sucked-on gunk to fall off & re-pollute the tank. The ziploc bag trick saves a lot of tank vacuuming.

 

[tiger15]

I agree that it depends on your own stocking levels, and your detritus levels. Personally, I prefer 2 canisters per tank, to avoid cycling issues.

Our heavily over-planted & over-stocked 125g tank looks like a jungle. I kinda like it that way. Canisters are Eheim 2062 and Eheim 2028, both at once. Lots of gunk & rotted plant matter (eg, 1 cupful) will collect inside the 2 canisters, weekly, unless I use sponge filters on the intakes. Sponge filters are awesome pre-filters that keep the canisters cleaner. Sponges let me avoid almost all of the detritus gunk, and the canisters stay almost gunk free. I clean canisters about every 4 months, but never both canisters at the same time. And I dread lifting the cans, cuz they're so heavy.

I’m not sure if your 125g is as overstocked and overplanted as mine. I have over 50 fish, mostly medium to large cichlid, in a jungle of plants. Most planted tank folks prefer canister which can be hidden silently inside the cabinet without distracting the aquascape, besides can be doubled as a CO2 reactor driver. I prefer HOBs though for ease of cleaning. Having 3 Penguin HOBs lined up on top of my over stocked 125g, I spent on average 5 minute to clean up one filter per week . You cannot procrastinate and know when you need to clean HOBs as clogged up media will overflow onto the intake pipe making splashing sound signal.

 

[viejafish]

Our heavily over-planted & over-stocked 125g tank looks like a jungle. I kinda like it that way. Canisters are Eheim 2062 and Eheim 2028, both at once. Lots of gunk & rotted plant matter (eg, 1 cupful) will collect inside the 2 canisters, weekly, unless I use sponge filters on the intakes. Sponge filters are awesome pre-filters that keep the canisters cleaner. Sponges let me avoid almost all of the detritus gunk, and the canisters stay almost gunk free. I clean canisters about every 4 months, but never both canisters at the same time. And I dread lifting the cans, cuz they're so heavy.

Cleaning a canister every 4 month is not a good practice for a heavily stocked tank. Even though the sponge pre-filter prevents detritus entry into the media, biofilm on the media will continue to build up reducing oxygen availability to BB and efficiency of bio filtration. The media in a canister is equivalent to extension of the gravel bed. If you do regular water change but omit vacuuming the gravel bed extension, your job is incomplete. I have also issue with sponge attachment to canister intake. The sponge can get clogged up fast in a heavily stocked tank. This will reduce flow to trickling risking anaerobic disaster if it happens when you are away from home. Air lift sponge filter is great filtration for fry tank, but not so good if it is power driven.

 

[cvar]

At weekly water changes, I clean the sponge filter, vacuum the sand, clean the glass, and discard yucky or excess leaves. I watch the plant movement for the strength of water flow from each filter. But I don't disturb the canisters. Yeah, a plugged intake can be scary & bad. I'll try cleaning the cans more often, and see if it makes a difference.

I had a HOB (Aquaclear 500) for a few years. It was effective, but kinda noisy. I even had a ramp-like baffle inside the HOB which stopped all the splashing noise. But the constant HOB impeller noise bothered me. A new impeller & new motor didn't help. The rattling impeller drove me nuts. Canisters are silent. So silent. I love silence.

My babies are gouramis, SAE, and a dozen CL (about 5" - 9"). They keep me company all day.

 

[tiger15]

Your tank is heavily planted, but fish stocking is no where near mine. Gourami and CL are not as messy as cichlid I keep, which not only eat and poop more, but sometime bit off pieces of plant. The plant debris get caught in the strainer of HOB and wave maker intakes. When I do my weekly HOB cleaning, I turn off the flow allowing the plant debris to float up where I can net away. Your weekly water change is a good practice to keep healthy plant and fish, but quarterly cleaning of canister is not frequent enough. Unfortunately, cleaning canister is no easy task, so there is disincentive to do more frequent cleaning. Instead of fitting a sponge filter on the intake, you may try fitting a sock which won't get clog up as easily. The reason I go with HOBs for my big tank is ease of cleaning, and you can't be lazy with cleaning as clogged up HOBs will bypass making splashing noise.