Post Pics Of Your Dirty Filter

[Dave1]

well, like the title says, post a pic of your dirty filter material...

heres mine, i change it once every 2-3 weeks, heres after 1½weeks...

 

[repunzlie]

oh my goodness!
Is that what its suppost to look like? mine is nothing like that and its been a week. But mine is only a 10 gallon.
I havent taken any pictures of my filter though.

 

[SuperColey1]

I think you must have a problem in your tank with the filter looking like that after 1½ weeks.

I am also planted, and I have 1.5 x the recommended fishload, but my filter media is never as clogged as that, even with bits of plant the inevitably get sucked in!

 

[brads]

I clean mine every six to eight weeks......but it never looks that bad. I think theirs a problem there. Mine goes slightly brown with a few bits of plants. Is your infeed for the filter to close to the bottom of the tank. mine is about 10cm from the gravel bed.

 

[my fat fish]

my filter wool looks quite bad after about 5 weeks but not that bad the rest is fine tho lol

what sorta tank is that from?

 

[mommyof2bettas]

I've got a 10 gallon and after 4 weeks it's almost completely blue, except for a few little brown splotches.

 

[fishwatcher]

I have 1 tank that the filter looks like that after about 3 weeks. The others never look that bad. Funny thing is that is the one that's the most lightly stocked on them all! Not sure what the problem is... I have the same routine for all of them.

 

[Nevergone815]

It could be that the understocked tank is being "overfed" Depending on the fish in there they may be eating less of the food? Also, depending on the waste produced your filters could look worse. Just a thought... Not downing on anyone, just trying to come up wiith a possible solution.

 

[celaeno]

what is all that muck made out of? fish diarhhea?

 

[Bloo]

My old filter in my planted tank used to look very similar - despite cleaning weekly and being understocked fish wise. It looks more like decaying plant material - mostly riccia or hornwort ?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

That looks like a very fine type of filter media, so it will naturally clog up a lot more often with muck. A lot also depends on what sort of fish you have- the filters in my goldfish tank get a lot more dirty than the ones in my sub-tropical tank purely because goldfish are big waste producers and the goldfish i have are getting very large, while the fish in my sub tropical tank are a lot lighter waste producing small fish (like WCMM's, danios, peppered corys etc).

It doesn't matter how dirty your filter media gets as long as the filters current is strong and steady- you should clean it out just before the point where the current starts to weaken etc. For some people this once every week, and for others it is every couple of months. My 5gal quarentine tank only has one fish in it at the mo and i haven't had the need to clean it out in 5weeks yet so far. My goldfish in comparison needs its filters cleaned every 1-2weeks though- after 1-2weeks the filter sponges in my goldfish tank don't look much different from yours either Dave lol.

 

[kpintheshed]

how many fish do u have tp produce that amount of dirt

 

[smmetz]

When my Aquaclear filter sponges get too clogged, the the right side of the whole basket starts to lift up from the filter current. That just happened in my 55 again, so it's time to rinse it out! I can take a pic if anyone really wants to see.

 

[Dave1]

its a 29 gal planted tank, and the filter inlet is ½way up from the bottom, i have 20-25 small fish (neon's, rasboras, bala sharks, etc.)

i tested my water my self and had it tested at 2 other places, and they all say my levels r PERFECT, and it seems like the only time my fish die r when i change/clean my filter off (in de-chlorinated water)

 

[demonmagus]

that's quiet close to the substrate lol , also thought I'd better tell you the balas are better out of there, check out their max size! (12-14 inches)