Question About Filter Changing

[George W Young]

I have a 120 gallon freshwater tank and I checked the water yesterday and it was perfect.
However, I have not serviced the very large filter in about a year.
My question is, should I just leave everything the way it is?

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF.

Can you explain your question a bit? What "serviced" means (rinsing, replacing) and what type of filter. Also, what tests did you carry out and what were the results of each? Knowing the fish (species and numbers) also factors in, and are there live plants.

 

[George W Young]

Servicing to me means cleaning it out and replacing the foam filters. It's a Sun Sun 304B
filter. I have 20 or so fish including 6 Angels, 3 Red Wags, 2 Cichlids, 1 Red Tail Shark, 3 Catfish, 1 Algae Eater and lots of live plants. I do plan to add about 10 more fish.

 

[Byron]

Those test numbers?

 

[Colin_T]

Filters should be cleaned at least once a month and every 2 weeks is great. The idea of cleaning the filter regularly is to reduce the fish waste that builds up in the filter media. The tank water passes through this poop and the more gunk in the filter, the more disease organisms that thrive in the tank. Cleaning the filter regularly reduces the amount of gunk in the filter so the water doesn't have to pass through poop before going back into the tank.

When you clean power filters, you squeeze the filter media (sponges) in a bucket of tank water. Then squeeze it out in another bucket of tank water before putting the filter media in the aquarium.

Wash the filter case and impellor assembly under tap water.

Set the filter back up with the clean filter media, fill it with tank water and turn it back on.

----------------------
Filter materials like sponges, ceramic beads, noodles, etc, do not need to be replaced unless they are falling apart.

If you have carbon (black granules) in the filter that should be replaced every 2-4 weeks. However, carbon is not normally necessary in most tanks.

 

[Vorpal]

What I do is...
Every other water change (once every couple of weeks), I dissamble the pump/filter. I put the filter in one bucket of water, while I clean the impeller & casing with a toothbrush (the only thing this toothbrush is used for). I don't clean it thoroughly. Just get the gunge out of the intake, impeller bits and various nooks and carnnies. When I am done with that, I take the casing & pump out of the water, and rinse the sponge in both buckets. Then I reassemble everything and put it back in the aquarium. I also have a nylon stocking over my pump/filter. That's there to keep fry out of it, but it also reduces the gunge that gets into the filter. That, however, also need rinsing, and occasionally washing.

p.s. do *not* replace the filter unless you absolutely have to, and then, 'start' the new filters with material from the old one. I found out the hard way that much of the tank ecology system lives in that filter!