Cleaning Arowana Tank - HELP!

[Coryloach]

The trouble is rays kick up an incredible amount of sand.I find I am cleaning my externals weekly now as apposed to every month.They get lots of sand inside them from the ray so the extra maintenance is necessary.

In the mean time mate why not use pre-filters? I've got sponges on all intakes and they're half way up from the bottom. I've shortened the intakes.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

This looks like a good idea.
I have infact already shortened the intakes but not tried a sponge pre filter.
I will give this a try.

 

[Galantspeedz]

Pre filter may reduce your water flow when it clogs up...

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Yeah I guess they would need to be squeezed out regularly but I don't think that would cause too much trouble.
I imagine the sponges would help stop reduced flow further into the filter by keeping muck out.

 

[Coryloach]

It doesnt reduce the flow at all...at least not enough to notice. I use coarse sponge blocks. If you zoom in in the picture you can see roughly the type of sponge. I clean mine once a week. And as a matter of fact my internal media in the cans is sponges too which dont get cleaned for months on end without any negative effect.

The pre-filters are really good to prevent excessive filter maintenance.

When cleaning sponges it is best shaking them under strong running water. Squeezing keeps the big gunk inside and mostly just dirty water comes out instead. Tap water will do as prefilter is for keeping the main media clean and not for biological filtration.