How Often Do You Wash Your Filter Media?

[BenVernon]

I wash my filter media once a week along with the 25% change in which I also do. However I was thinking about the bacteria that grows in the filter... Every week I must loose all the good bacteria which I need and I am not really giving it a good enough chance to grow if I wash the media every week. Am I washing it too regular?

 

[fluttermoth]

The bacteria cling on to the media quite strongly so, unless your really scrubbing it, you won't lose too many; not enough to affect your cycle anyway.
 
There's no 'right' amount of time between media cleans; it depends on how heavily stocked the tank is and what sort of fish you have. Just as an example, my oscar/catfish need their filter done every water change, whereas my little shrimp/dwarf emerald danio's one only needs doing every few months.
 
You want to do it often enough so that the media doesn't get clogged or blocked with dirt.

 

[cigritfish]

when i do my water change once a week i swish my filters off in the bucket of tank water to clean them.

 

[catfish4ever]

every 2-3 weeks just swish the media around in the tank water

 

[b3cca]

I change the disposable cheap white filter floss stuff pretty much every week or so but the rest of the media like maybe twice in 2 years  

 

[TallTree01]

Whenever it's dirty. I check when I do waterchanges.

 

[DrRob]

When flow slows, so almost never. Floss though, ranges from weekly to monthly depending on the tank. Again it's the low tech shrimp tank that doesn't need much, but the filter isn't all that strong in there so it doesn't pull much debris into the media. I suspect your oscar tank has some good mechanical flow going on there FM. The other tanks that tend to be problematical for me are establishing planted tanks. Nothing blocks my filters better than leaf debris during a good melt.

 

[DreamertK]

I cover my filter inlet with a piece of filter media (cloth/sponge) to keep duckweed from entering it. It turns black and prevents much flow into the filter after a few days, so I clean it. Though of course I have filter media inside the filter, I dont have to worry about the bacteria that may be growing on the cover getting destroyed. Besides, it only takes about 10 minutes of rinsing to clean, which isn't long enough to kill much bacteria that it may be harboring.
 
I know I should get some sort of tea bag to cover it. I keep forgetting when I go to the store.

 

[Georgia_ofthejungle]

I scrub out the filter maybe once every 3 months? This will be once a month from now on though. I change the filter sponge around once every 2 or 3 weeks