Cleaning Filter

[ukchris]

I have a fluval 240 tank and a 305 filter, and was wondering if someone could guide me in the right direction in cleaning the filter.
I have had this set up for a good six months now and I normally give the four filter pads a good clean in tank water, empty out all the water out of the filter and rinse, wash out the compartments and clean the media by swirling it around in tank water. I do this process every two to three weeks and have never had any problems. I also do a 25% water change. I am asking this because someone told me it was overkill.

 

[Verminator89]

Perhaps give the filter material a rinse every 4th week, and don't go crazy clean it totally, leave it looking mucky still, you need the bacteria thats in the media always. Over cleaning will kill/rinse it out and you'll effectively have no filtration basically, so keep it looking slightly mucky ok.

Cleaning the actual filter itself isnt a sin in any way, as the bacteria growing in your media is what detoxifies your water and stops nitrate/nitrite ect ect. I clean my filter out each time i rinse the sponges. Mainly to get rid of the gunk, any snails that grow in there (for some reason they do) and to declog the inlet and increase the flow as it slows down quite quickly in my Fluval 305.

your water change i'm assuming is 25% weekly, this sounds ok but really it depends on your stocking levels in your tank. Assuming your not overstocked and are in the boundaries of low-medium 25% weekly should be fine. Personally i always do a third of the tank each week, and on the 4th week i rinse my sponges out lightly in the old tank water i've syphoned out. I replace the filter media every 12 months, albeit not at the same time obviously as i want to preserve my good bacteria.

 

[bricko]

As a rule I always used to clean my 305 every month depending on the flow rate. If the flow is slowing down then obviously you will need to maintain more often.

I used to rinse the sponges under the tap (I know this isn't whats advisable as this will kill the bacteria on them) but they were only used as a mechanical filter in this instance and removing all the dead plant matter and gunk increased my flow rate immensely. As for the media housing the bacteria, I would rinse in a sieve under a bucket of water drained from the aquarium every other month. Never did change any media although if you are running the filter for years then it probably does become a requirement at some stage, just rinsing the external gunk under aquarium water has always worked for me.

Hope this helps

Bricko

 

[orangefish]

Cleaning the actual filter itself isnt a sin in any way, as the bacteria growing in your media is what detoxifies your water and stops nitrate/nitrite ect ect. I clean my filter out each time i rinse the sponges. Mainly to get rid of the gunk, any snails that grow in there (for some reason they do) and to declog the inlet and increase the flow as it slows down quite quickly in my Fluval 305.

How do you clean/declog the actual filter componants? Thanks