Hello and welcome to our blog!. Ever wondered how to properly clean an aquarium filter. Well, you are in for a treat as we are going to have a look at the dos and don’ts of filter cleaning in all its glory!.
We will mainly explain how to clean actual mechanical filters. As that’s hopefully what most people have especially beginners. We will run through both internal submersible filters that are what we use mainly and external filters too!.
How To Clean Filter
siphon water out of the tank and into the bucket. we gently wash the media. As we pour tank water over it by rubbing not pulling apart just rubbing looking for any food waste and any orange sludge!.
Once this is done we check that the media still feels rough and not smooth or slimy. As this means it’s time for new media. once we have checked that the media feels good and is clean.
HOW NOT TO CLEAN FILTERS!
Right, let’s have some fun and start with the what NOT to do. Please don’t do these as you are likely to mess your whole tank up lol!.
The main one is cleaning your filter media. No matter what type of media it is. Sponge or balls with and or without activated charcoal!.
Internal or external or even dual-action foam filter media such as what we have. It all makes no difference the principle is the same DONT wash your filter media under the tap!.
Tap water is full of metals and nutrients that left untreated will harm the fish and will undoubtedly contaminate the tank itself!.
Next, we have the conditioned water cleaners (facepalm) yes that’s great you’ve put tap Safe into a bucket of tap water!.
Congratulations you have at least made the water relatively safe for fish but for cleaning filters no no no!. The filter is where all the good bacteria live.
You don’t want to destroy all those weeks and weeks of hard work building up a colony of good bacteria and have to start over again!.
Bleach and other chemicals are you mad lol. How is this even a thing I mean if you cleaned your filters with any chemical soap even vinegar yep seen people try it?.
heard about it over and over again vinegar! Well done you have killed your fish dum dum lol!.
SMALLER ERRORS IN CLEANING FILTERS!
Now we have that out of our system. We can move on to cleaning our filters and the media inside. But let’s look at some small problems that can occur.
Easy enough mistakes but hay thought id mention them here. After you have cleaned the filter media and put it all back together inside the cartridge.
You place it back into the tank and fire it up and er well BOOM great big dirty brown water spits out or loads of debris spits itself back out into your tank’s water oof!.
What just happened!. For F- Sake, etc!. Well, two things probably just happened and it has happened to the best of us.
You forgot to clean the hoses and or pipes connecting the filter to the tank you dum dum lol!.
Or you placed the filter back in the wrong place. Ie too high in the tank and all the debris has flown out and is now floating around all over the place!.
Bare in mind, that you can also place too low and have a similar issue. But you may not notice as much. Although having a submersible filter too low in the tank.
Will not provide enough circulation and cause there not to have enough oxygen across the top of the tank. Which is much needed for a variety of our fish!.
CORRECTLY CLEANING FILTER AND MEDIA!
Firstly let us turn the filter Itself off!. Take the filter with one hand and grab the casing that holds your media. Press and pull to unclip the case and pull the media compartment away and lift out of the tank.
Leaving the motor part of the filter inside the tank (be aware your filter may unclip or just pull etc)(!.)
You can now place the media still in its housing to the side in a bucket. We then take some water out of our tank via a siphon we do a water change when cleaning the filter. Something about two birds and one stone comes to mind!.
Anywho we siphon the water out of the tank and into the bucket. While this is happening we have taken the media out and we gently wash the media.
As we pour tank water over it by rubbing not pulling apart just rubbing looking for any food waste and any orange sludge!.
Once this is done we check that the media still feels rough and not smooth or slimy. As this means it’s time for new media. once we have checked that the media feels good and is clean.
We can place it back inside the housing and place it back into the motor end inside the tank!.
To finish we clean the hose and pipe on the motor end if needed and be sure to put the filter back in the right place. As mentioned previously do a final check.
To make sure you have put things back correctly. Now you can finish the water change. Well in our case as we like to do these at the same time and once done fire it back up!.
Awesome all done looks good maybe some slight debris. As we have done a water change too and the filter takes a little bit to catch up!.
IN CLOSING FILTER CLEANING!
In closing, we would say that after turning the filter back on. The water feels more forceful for the first few minutes. It settles down quickly it’s just the water going back round again and circulating!.
Things are pretty much the same for external filters. You still need to siphon water. To clean with and clean the hoses and pipes and of course, the media will be a slightly longer cleaning process.
As the hoses will be longer and the filters are generally bigger and more powerful. You will need a mat and some rubber gloves as they tend to be a bit more er dirty!.
Please feel free to put your questions. We would love to hear them and remember to keep loving the hobby thanks again the Tank0fish team!.
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