alanmin4304 Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Don't clean the filter at all unless the flow is restricted then only clean it enough to get the flow restored. It is a biological filter and the bacteria that do the work live in the gunge in the filter. If you remove the gunge you also remove your filtration. Sometimes all that is required is to clean the inlet pipe to the filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 The "gunge" is what stops the filter filtering the water and stops removing particles, bacteria work just as well in a properly cleaned filter. I clean mine about once every 1-2 months to prevent build up in the sponges and wool, the way i clean my bio media is i leave it in it tray and put it in the sink, tip half a bucket of warm tank water over it to backwash all the gunk and then put it back into the filter. I've never had any issues with my tank re cycling during my 4-5 years of fish keeping. If you wanted to get technical, the more gunk you have the less surface area you have in your filter, restricting optimal conditons for them and reducing space for more bacteria to live Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 The gunge is home for the bacteria but also acts as a physical filter so best not to clean it unless the flow is restricted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 They live in the bio media itself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 I will give you 12 guesses what they feed on. Bacteria cannot live on ammonia or nitrite alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Filters work best when half gunked up and far to many people overclean their filters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 In slow sand filters used to treat drinking water for many towns and cities there is a layer on top of the filter called schmutzdecke which builds up and does the cleaning work. The princliple is the same in an aquarium filter. When you remove that the filter has to build it up again before it works properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos & Siran Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread jgreenslade89 but I have a cloudy water question as well. Have just set up our 280ltr from scratch 4 days ago, have added stresszyme, and ferts (Flourish etc) Filtration is a Eheim 2215 and the standard Aquaone trickle filter which is currently not working as the impeller needs replacing (on order, expect it Monday or Tuesday). Heavily planted, only unusual thing we've done is add natural detritus we obtained from the local river (was washed thoroughly to remove mud and silt). After filling with water (clean bore water from the farm) we noticed a cloudiness to it that we weren't concerned about at first, but 4 days later and it hasn't changed. It doesn't look like poor filtration, it's not dirty looking, just cloudy like ammonia (can ammonia levels be high from the moment you fill the tank?) As yet have not done any tests ( :oops: A little busy last few days, will get on to it today at some stage) Anyone have any ideas off the top of their head? Ammonia? maybe the ph has dropped so low because of the detritus it's physically clouded the water?? (I hope it's not that because the detritus looks so cool and natural looking) Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos & Siran Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 (edit) Actually it does seem to have the weak tea tannin colouration as well as the cloudiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodKing Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 The "gunge" is what stops the filter filtering the water and stops removing particles, bacteria work just as well in a properly cleaned filter. I clean mine about once every 1-2 months to prevent build up in the sponges and wool, the way i clean my bio media is i leave it in it tray and put it in the sink, tip half a bucket of warm tank water over it to backwash all the gunk and then put it back into the filter. I've never had any issues with my tank re cycling during my 4-5 years of fish keeping. If you wanted to get technical, the more gunk you have the less surface area you have in your filter, restricting optimal conditons for them and reducing space for more bacteria to live +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgreenslade89 Posted July 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 No worries I don't mind you hijacked. All learning for all of us on the forum. What worked best for my cloudy water was a uv filter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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