Filters/Water Change

[momodig]

I have fluval 204, how often should the filters been cleaned and changed? I also heard once you replace the filters u need to recycle again? I'm doing a water change tomorow any advice or tips? I've prepared the water tonight with the proper salt amounts that I'm using to replace the old water with. Again any tips would be appreciated
thanks

[Pufferpunk]

That's a canister filter right? I generally use an AquaClear HOB filter on tanks <50g & then add a canister for extra biological filtration, on larger tanks. The HOB filter is much easier to access & clean. Then you can rinse out the sponge weekly or every other week, add filter floss to polish the water & add a bag of BioMax to the top, for biological filtration. I only clean my canisters every 3-6 months, depending on how the tanks are stocked.

[jake_vdb]

I also heard once you replace the filters u need to recycle again?

No. If you clean the filter properly you should not have any ammonia/nitrite spikes.

You should probably not replace any of the media in your filter, unless for some reason you are running activated carbon. If you are running activated carbon, I personally would suggest you replace it with either an extra sponge, or more bio media.

Rinse the bio media in tank water, and wring out/rinse the sponges in tank water. Don't leave them out long enough to dry out. The whole process should take less than 1 hour. If your media sits around for longer than an hour or so without oxygenated water running through it, your nitrifying bacteria will start to die and you will might have ammonia or nitrite spikes afterwords.

I don't have a Fluval, but I can tell you exactly what the instructions for my Eheim are. They suggest you replace 1/2 of your bio media with new bio media every time you clean the filter. IMO this is not necessary, it might start to fall apart after a few years, but I think it will last a lot longer than cleaning intervals. They also suggest you replace the water polishing sponge (fine sponge), I don't know if your Fluval has one of these. They say the cleaning interval is whenever the flow of the filter is reduced (typically 6 months). You might want to consult your Fluval manual, or their website as it may be different for your filter.

One other suggestion; I have heard people say on the week they clean their filter, they *don't* do a gravel vac. I have started doing this also (just replace water that week, but don't touch the gravel), although I never had ammonia/nitrite spikes in the past when I would clean the filter and gravel vac in the same day, still seems like a good idea...

[momodig]

Let me get this straight, I should clean my filters with my aquirium water?
thanks for the tips

[jake_vdb]

Let me get this straight, I should clean my filters with my aquirium water?
thanks for the tips

Correct. Some people say they rinse it right in tap water, but I think that really depends on how much chlorine/chloramine is added to your water supply. I personally wouldn't chance it, and I feel that I can get my media rinsed pretty thoroughly just using a bucket of tank water.

If you felt so inclined, you could use dechlorinated tap water then match the salinity and temp of your tank water. Just keep in mind the nitrifying bacteria in your filter is often more sensitive than the fish themselves, so a sudden temp change could kill most of your bacteria colony.

[momodig]

Like I said I have fluval 204 MSF. I have a faom screen frame. It has three baskets to put filters in this is what i have in them. Biox Max, they look like round rings in the middle case... and carbon in the bottem case, should I get something for the top case?

thanks

[Pufferpunk]

No mechanical filtration in there. I'd forget about the carbon. Never use it, except to filter out meds, which I rarely use. Do they carry some kind of sponge that will fit in one of the compartments? That you can rinse weekly or every 2. In the 3rd, I'd put filter floss (bought in a sewing store, as pillow stuffing, for cheap) to "polish" your water, crystal clear.

[Pufferoni]

I bought a bag of filter floss from Big Als and after I put it in I got tons of little floss floaties in the water had to rip the stuff out.

Should I have rinsed it out more thoroughly or something.

The fish loved it. Freaked me out though watching them eat the stuff.

[nmonks]

That happens with filter wool, especially lower quality stuff. If you rinse the wool before using it, it shouldn't happen. But as you say, it's pretty harmless and the fish do seem amused by unusual things in the aquarium. I consider filter wool to be very useful in tanks with plants and such: nothing else comes close for removing silt.

Cheers,

Neale

[Boxermom]

Just make sure if you use the cheap pillow stuffing poly floss (which is what I use) that its clearly marked HYPOALLERGENIC so that it doesn't have any nasty chemicals that will kill your fish.

[rtylermack]

I'd forget about the carbon. Never use it, except to filter out meds, which I rarely use. Do they carry some kind of sponge that will fit in one of the compartments?

My H.O.T. Magnum (which I don't actually yet have, but ordered) has a special "Carbon/Media" compartment that I could put something other than carbon in (the unit does come with Black Diamond, though). Should I stuff this with filter floss on my new set-up, or should I start out with the carbon as chemical filtration and later move to something else?

[Boxermom]

I use the carbon that my canisters came with, only for biological filtration though. Lots of surface area on them.

[fshfanatic]

I rinse all my media of larger debris and squeeze out the filter pads ever time or ever other time I do a water change. I rinse them in a bucket of tank water.

I know this is way over kill and I am just giving myself extra work, but in the long run it pays off. I can get this done on my 125 in about twenty minutes ( canister rinse ) and I am rinsing two, a Fluval FX5 & a Eheim Pro II 2026.