How often to clean filter ?

[zfinny]

Hi all. I have a planted 75g running on a Fluval 407 canister. It’s been going for about five months now, and I’m starting to get worried about having not cleaned it yet. Like I do all this regular maintenance every week and then I glance at the filter and get a cartoonishly sized sweat bead. I’ve been putting it off, because I’m scared that by cleaning it I’ll mess up the beneficial bacteria and crash the cycle. the tank is growing strong and I’ve had no issues with anything in it so I’m extra paranoid to mess with the filter.

How often does everyone clean their canisters and in what way? Does it depend on stock level? i see varying information about how frequently one should be cleaned and in which manner, but I’m posting because I’m still not sure and I want hobbyist opinions. Also please don’t roast me , I love my wet pets, thank you for any advice

View attachment IMG_5960.jpeg

 

[tlindsey]

Hi all. I have a planted 75g running on a Fluval 407 canister. It’s been going for about five months now, and I’m starting to get worried about having not cleaned it yet. Like I do all this regular maintenance every week and then I glance at the filter and get a cartoonishly sized sweat bead. I’ve been putting it off, because I’m scared that by cleaning it I’ll mess up the beneficial bacteria and crash the cycle. the tank is growing strong and I’ve had no issues with anything in it so I’m extra paranoid to mess with the filter.

How often does everyone clean their canisters and in what way? Does it depend on stock level? i see varying information about how frequently one should be cleaned and in which manner, but I’m posting because I’m still not sure and I want hobbyist opinions. Also please don’t roast me , I love my wet pets, thank you for any advice

View attachment 1546789

Welcome aboard
I personally don't use cannister filters but most who have one will have different maintenance cleaning time preference. You have a planted aquarium so I assume most with plants may perform maintenance at longer periods. If your parameters are stable and Nitrate isn't too high you could probably go longer than someone who had fish only setup. Also heard the flow rate may slow down a indicator for some to perform maintenance.
I dunk all my bio media in aquarium water removed during water changes. I never run my biomedia under tap water. I actually can smell the chlorine in my tap water lol.

 

[tlindsey]

Hi all. I have a planted 75g running on a Fluval 407 canister. It’s been going for about five months now, and I’m starting to get worried about having not cleaned it yet. Like I do all this regular maintenance every week and then I glance at the filter and get a cartoonishly sized sweat bead. I’ve been putting it off, because I’m scared that by cleaning it I’ll mess up the beneficial bacteria and crash the cycle. the tank is growing strong and I’ve had no issues with anything in it so I’m extra paranoid to mess with the filter.

How often does everyone clean their canisters and in what way? Does it depend on stock level? i see varying information about how frequently one should be cleaned and in which manner, but I’m posting because I’m still not sure and I want hobbyist opinions. Also please don’t roast me , I love my wet pets, thank you for any advice

View attachment 1546789

I overlooked looked the pic of your aquarium. I assumed you had more plants than that. Also you have Discus which requires clean pristine water with the lowest level of nitrate. I would suggest clean the cannister filter asap.

 

[neutrino]

There are different opinions. The thing is factors like size and number of fish, how much and what you feed, certain aspects of water/tank chemistry, size and number of plants (if you have them), etc. all make a difference. Best way to clean is to rinse media with non-chlorinated water (tank water, well water, etc.) that's similar in temperature to the tank. I have well water so I do mine under a tub faucet, if you're using tank water you can do it in a bucket. Non-chlorinated water of the correct temperature won't be toxic to your beneficial bacteria.

You look fairly lightly stocked, a few plants but not many-- by now I'd take a look inside to see what your filter looks like. After a while you should be able to work out the best cleaning interval for your particular tank.

 

[duanes]

One of the aspects I look at in cleaning frequency..... is nitrate creep.
If after a water change nitrate quickly rises, that may be an indication, that the filter is spewing out nitrate as a byproduct of filtration, and needs to be cleaned.
When my tank nitrate level rises above 5 ppm, this indicates a water change, and possibly a filter cleaning is needed.

 

[zfinny]

I overlooked looked the pic of your aquarium. I assumed you had more plants than that. Also you have Discus which requires clean pristine water with the lowest level of nitrate. I would suggest clean the cannister filter asap.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. I for some reason never even considered rinsing the media in the removed water from the change!! I will be sure to do that

 

[dmyersWv]

I use canisters and clean them every 3 months. I run sponge filters in the tanks. I don't worry to much about bacteria in the canister as it should be on the plants gravel or sand and on any plants in the tank.

 

[hamfist]

Almost every canister filter and tank is a unique combination. Largely because of differences in stocking and feeding levels and also that almost every canister filter will have some different combination of filter media in it. You will get to know your own filtration system much better after a couple of cleans as you will find out how much gunk there was inside, was it actually even worth cleaning out etc ?
A keen sign that a canister needs cleaning out is a noticeable reduction in water flow. As others have stated, try to clean media in old tank water, and (except for any fine media or polishing pads) do not squeeze out sponges too thoroughly - a couple of good squeezes and a dunk up and down is enough - much of the beneficial bacteria actually live in the brown mulm within any sponge, so definately don't attempt to get rid of it all.
One piece of advice for any sizeable tank at all is to try and run multiple filters if at all possible. It serves as backup in case of a breakdown but also means that you don't have to clean all your filtration at once. You can alternate cleanings.
I run 3 x Eheim 2217's (each roughly the same size as a Fluval 407) in a 135g tank. I'd say I stock at least 20% more heavily than you. I have 30ppi prefilter sponges (squeezed out weekly) on my fliter intakes - this very significantly increases the length of time needed between filter cleanouts. I feed my fish moderately and I clean out each filter every 6 months in a rotation, so they all basically get done twice a year. Of note also is that I only have 20ppi sponge or ceramic media in the filters. I never have any fine sponge or floss, as these simply seem to need far too frequent attention and clog far too easily, and do not seem to contribute to clearer water, as my water is usually absolutely crystal clear as it is.
For further reasing for anyone wanting to understand more about aquarium filtration I can thoroughly recommend https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/6-filtration/

 

[tiger15]

One of many drawbacks of canister filter is that it is not obvious when the media is clogged needing cleaning. Depending on media packing, some clogged up canister may trickle down in flow while others won’t due to short circuiting. For HOBs, the signal of clogged media is obvious as flow will bypass onto the spillway. Regardless, all filters need to be cleaned periodically, no less than once a month and more frequently the better. Filters don’t eliminate wastes, just hide them under the rug. But it’s PIA to clean canister and without obvious signal of clogging, many users tend to procrastinate cleaning. A clogged up canister can be a time bomb of anaerobic disaster in power surge.

 

[dmyersWv]

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.