i have a eheim 2213 filter and i was wondering how often you should wash it out and replace the stones inside
does the o ring have to be greased? i have never greased at allI run two Eheim 2217"s on 80 gal and once a month, I take them to the sink,open the valves and let water drain from the filter into 3 gal bucket or larger.
I then remove the pad's and rinse them out in the bucket of water,and place them on the counter or other side of sink.
I then pour the water from bucket back into filter and let it run out the hose, down the drain.
I then replace the pad's,,clean the impeller assembly,and put the lid back on after greasing the O ring with vaseline(not too much).
I then take the filter back to the tank and hook hoses back up.open valves,and plug filter back in.
have had same biological media in these two filter's for almost two year's.
honestly, is all of this really necessary?? You have even contradicted yourself in this posting.i concur with all that has been posted to date. I would only mention that you needn't fuss over using tank water to clean filter media, except in fairly new systems, or in "special" tanks such as a qt that lacks any substrate. There is more bacteria in the substrate and elsewhere in the tank than in the filter, assuming an established tank (running a few months). It doesn't hurt to be overly-cautious, but it isn't necessary, just so you know.
You haven't mention live plants either, and as someone noted if these are present even in newer tanks you won't (or shouldn't under normal conditions) have any issues.
While i have always washed filters under the tap, and everything else for that matter (and my water is heavily chlorinated) i'm not relying on just my own experience here; many sources will offer this approach. And i suspect it may actually be helpful; any undesirable bacteria in the filter would be just as well getting killed off.
to add another interesting tidbit, the most recent studies suggest that nitrification in the aquarium is not carried out by bacteria at all, but by another form of life known as archaea. A significant study from 2011 can be found here
plos one: Aquarium nitrification revisited: Thaumarchaeota are the dominant ammonia oxidizers in freshwater aquarium biofilters
though i warn you it is highly scientific. But just so you know i'm not dreaming this up...;-)
i haven't gone into this in any detail, an article in pfk a couple months back brought this to my attention, so i can't say if this archaea is killed by chlorine or not, though i would suspect it might be, but that is just supposition. Archaea used to be considered as a bacterium, but is now separated as a domain of single-celled organisms, of which there are three: Bacteria, archaea and eukaryota. The singular form of the name is archaeon, plural being archaea.
Byron.
LOL Too funny 1077! :rofl:Other'perhap's can get too aggressive with gravel vaccum,and other's remove everything from their tank's and clean rock's, wood, and I suspect they would clean the fish too if they could get the fish to hold still.