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914 views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  aussieJJDude 
#1 ·
Hi there guys, I have a question regarding when I should clean my filter for the first time. I had completed the fishless cycle and the water paremeters were correct correct, but now I had gradually added fish to my tank, and had completed a 15-20 % water change as the ammonia levels read around 0.5 ~. So when should I clean the filter?
 
#2 ·
It depends on the filter. I clean my HOB filters every two weeks or when they start to clog up, but my HOB are only for mechanical filtering I do bio filtering with sponges. I clean my sponges every 2-3 months unless I see them starting to clog early.

When you clean the media put about a gallon of tank water in a bucket and clean the media in that, DON"T USE TAP WATER!!

Okay sorry don't get to use colors much :cool:
 
#3 ·
In my opinion you should clean the filter when you notice a reduction in water flow. It's unnecessary to clean the filter more than once a month, and even that ought to be too often for most setups. But if you under filter, over stock and over feed your tank, you'll need to clean it much more frequently.

War hawk makes a great point about the nature of your filter. Some people run a filter solely for water polishing, and such a filter needs to be cleaned much more often in order to remain effective.

I run big canister filters, 2-3 on the big tanks, and clean them once a year. If I had only one filter I would have to clean it more frequently for sure.

I have always used regular tap water to clean my filter media and never once have I had a problem because of it. Might not be a good idea to use tap water on newly established media, but it's not a good idea to be cleaning newly established media in the first place.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Thanks for all your replies, the tank is 180 litres. With 33 fishes in total , 12 neons 9 mollies , 6 guppies and 6 swordails.

Another question i had realised that my guppies are losing scales they seem to look healthy, i had just finished the eSHa 2000 treatment, its only the guppies that are losing scales, thinking they could be infected by a disease in the pet store

Also to add, the water paremeters are also fine , amonia and nitrates are all good
 

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#6 ·
I had a problem with a disease that caused a loss of color on their head, but I am unfamiliar with losing scales. Just be sure to remove carbon from your filter when you do medical treatments or it may not work. I would recommend not "cleaning" your filter completely. Depending on what type you use, you should just change the filter pad that collects detritus, and you could never change that too much, but you'll notice if it's dirty or clean enough to leave for a while longer. The other media or parts of the filter should keep the good bacteria on them. If you notice it starting to smell inside then rinsing should clean it enough. I use biofilters and other types that hang on the back of the tank and I just change the filter pads once every week or two. Every couple months I rinse out the containers but I don't scrub them clean. I made the mistake of thoroughly cleaning everything, including the tank and gravel too much when I started keeping fish and it causes the tank to lose its cycle and sometimes shocks the fish and I lost some that way. Anyway, there's lots of info online if you search for specific things as you're learning, like for disease. Sorry I couldn't help with that. Good luck :)
 
#7 ·
How long have you had the setup in question? Even though you have a slightly large number of fish in there, it should be too much of a worry if you keep up with frequent waterchanges. How many and how large your your waterchanges?

What filter do you use?
 
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