Filter Maintenance

[dgwebster]

what im saying though is that it does colonise there. even in some peoples externals they dont use any chemical or bacterial filtration material, puely the foam inserts.

It would also depend on the foam. coarse foam is more likely to hang onto particles inside the foam that have wiggled in there. fine grade foam, larger particles are on the outside unable to penetrate it and smaller particles squeeze out.

peraonlly id rather have ALL AVAILABLE bacteria colony space available for use rather than lowering it by rinsing in tap water.

 

[andywg]

But by doing so you have reduced the efficiency of the filter. Things will get clogged in there and will break down to nitrates. More than this, things will also get clogged in the bio-media too, reducing its efficiency. This is one of the problems with the fluval x04 series, the water can skip the mechanical filtration and as such you get gunk forming on the bio-media.

Unless you are running right at the edge of the filters capacity you do not need that extra space for the bacteria.

And if you are running that close then you are asking for trouble.

 

[dgwebster]

ok this may then be a dumb question but it is a serious question im curious about, not an attempt to look for an excuse or further reason but a genuine concern - what about the chlorine from the tap water in your mechanical filter foam? for instance, mines is a highly porus and very sponge like - no amount of wringing will empty it. If I blast that with tap water, surely it will then contain some amount of chlorine that I then introduce to the biological filter stage when tank water passes through it.

Im going to make a fair guess that as you would ideally be doing a water change and hence should have added dechlorinator anyway, damage would be rather minimal, but would this not have potential to wreck havoc?

Lets say you refill with RO water and like me, blonde of body and mind (sometimes), so you forget to wring out mechanical filter and place it back in sodding wet with tap water? what becomes the potential then?

again this is a serious forethought in consideration.

 

[andywg]

I doubt it will have a massive effect, it doesn't on mine. Chlorine gasses out very quickly and as you rightly alude to, de-chlor acts instantly. If you wring the media then you are going to have most of the water out, and the gassing of the chlorine over the media should get rid of it (tests have shown that most aerators on taps gas out almost all chlorine).

Chloramine would be a larger worry, but again, not massively so. There is the potential to wreak havoc, but no more so than when doing a normal water change and you forgetting to add dechlor.

Even if it is soaking wet, it will soon pass through the bacteria but will not cause a massive problem, probably a mini spike. Before I used to come on here and learned better I used to rinse my bio-media out under the tap once a month, but suffered no massive ill effects (though I am not recommending this practice).

Asking what happens if you leave it soaking wet without wringing it would be like asking what happens if you forget to put dechlor in when water changing. You can't prevent stupidity or forgetfulness from impacting on a system.

If it really worries you, put it in the tank first to dilute any traces of chlorine, though remember that the active agent in dechlor (sodium thiosuplhate) sits around in the water if overdosed, waiting for chlorine to attach to. Therefore, the chances are that there will be ample ST in the water in the filter (or flowing over it, depending on the type) to react with any chlorine in the water before any harm is done.

On bigger filters, (like wet dry) the tap is the only way to get the filter floss clean, you would never clean that out with your hands in a bucket.

 

[Kipper_Face]

I would go with what the manufacturer says, in this case Eheim say
03. How often should a filter be cleaned?
There is no general rule because the necessary cleaning frequency depends on many factors such as size of the aquarium, population, vegetation, type and amount of feed. Therefore we recommend cleaning the filter only when the pump performance deteriorates noticeably. A minimum period of 8 weeks should be allowed from one cleaning to the next because shorter cleaning intervals impede bacteria activity.

Also I have yet to find a major manufacturer of external cannister filters who would recommend cleaning in raw tap water, however I did read that a chinese manufacturer through translation errors advacated cleaning in tap water.....

 

[andywg]

But then Fluval recommend changing the bio media every 6 months, so you cannot always rely on what the manufacturer states. In fact, most posts on this forum state that you should take what the manufacturer says with a pinch of salt,a sthey are in this business for business.

I am also fairly sure that people with large, heavy stocked tanks need to clean a filter out more frequently than once per 2 months.

Otherwise, why have mechanical media if you are really keeping it for biological? Why change chemical media? After all, this will have some bacteria on it too.

And why do water changes, this too will get rid of some of the bacteria. You may reply by saying almost none of the bacteria is in the water, but then very little of the bacteria is in the mechanical media, it is on the bio-media.