David R Posted September 10, 2013 Report Share Posted September 10, 2013 You should only clean a filter once the flow is affected. I disagree, in fact I believe doing that is a recipe for disaster. If done correctly there is no reason you shouldn't clean your canister filters every time you change water, you will not be "removing bacteria" and you will not cause a mini cycle.A canister filter full of waste will be doing two things: 1; producing loads of nitrate. We all know the cycle goes waste > ammonia > nitrite > nitrate. The aim of the game with water changes is to keep the nitrates at an acceptable level (the other two should always be zero). So why, in the interests of maintaining good water, would you leave months worth of waste sitting inside your filter decomposing and creating more nitrate, meaning more water changes? 2; potentially polluting your tank and harming your fish. In a matter of hours with no water flow a filthy canister will turn into an anaerobic environment and start producing annoxic gases. If the filter switches back on before you get to it you're going to end up with rather toxic water being spewed back into your tank, which could wipe out your stock. Essentially, you're playing russian roulette with your fish. If set up correctly and maintained regularly canisters aren't that hard to clean. ANY aquarium filter should have the water flowing through mechanical media first (in order of coarsest to finest) to catch the physical waste before it reaches the biological media. If cleaned frequently you may not even need to touch the baskets with bio media, but all they should ever need is a quick dunk in a bucket of tank water. This will not harm/destroy your beneficial bacteria, just don't leave it sitting around dry all day. The mechanical media can be replaced or rinsed under the tap as any bacteria it houses it shouldn't be required if there is sufficient biological media. I know people get away with going ridiculous lengths between cleaning canisters, recently on MFK one guy admitted to not cleaning out a canister for nearly a year! However, it is far from 'best practice', and will certainly mean you need to change more water to keep your nitrate in check. And it could mean death for your fish in a worst case scenario... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcculloch Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 :gpo2: I agree absolutely with David couldn't have said it better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippin Posted September 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 Thanks David So with cleaning the canister just a dunk in the aquarium water in a bucket is ok to remove all excess gunk and not upset bacteria stability? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 What about the plant growers who maintain a high leval of nitrate for plant growth by adding ferts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 Thanks David So with cleaning the canister just a dunk in the aquarium water in a bucket is ok to remove all excess gunk and not upset bacteria stability? I'd dunk, swish and squeeze all the crap I can out of it. But I was mine under the kitchen tap so have a good supply of clean water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted September 12, 2013 Report Share Posted September 12, 2013 What about the plant growers who maintain a high leval of nitrate for plant growth by adding ferts. What about them? I don't see how it is relevant to this discussion about cichlid tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted September 12, 2013 Report Share Posted September 12, 2013 What about them? I don't see how it is relevant to this discussion about cichlid tanks. It does for nice cichlid tank like SA/CA cichlids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camtang Posted September 13, 2013 Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 I have realised that there is a corolation between my water changes and the banding on my Fronts that night. If I do not do a change most/all of them are very dark. The days I do a small change some of them get some banding on them and the days I do big changes most of them get nice banding on them. I may try and do 30-40% a day for the next 2 weeks and see if that gets the banding more prominent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted September 13, 2013 Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 Sounds like you need to invest in some sort of automated system!! I'd dearly love to do something like that to change 5-10% daily, but being on rain water with a limited supply over summer I'm going to wait at least one summer to see how I get thru the dry spell first... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camtang Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 I would love to have a auto system, but I wouldn't know where to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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