Are you supposed to clean out filters?

I was recently on Amazon writing a review for a filter I have and saw it was rated for "easy to clean". I always thought you were supposed to leave it for bb growth, but are you supposed to clean out an HOB filter? What about sponge filters?

I have HOB Penguin filters that all have a bio wheel for bb. I change the cartridges every few weeks but I have never actually taken the filter out and cleaned the inside of it out. One time a hair got lodged in the propeller and I took it apart and scrubbed it but that was the only time in years. Do you guys clean your filters? How often?

 

I have an aqua clear 30 hob. I use a bottle cleaner thingy to clean the intake whenever it gets nasty. And about once a month I I’ll squeeze the sponges inside out into the water I’ve removed when doing a water change.. once your tanks established there’s bacteria alllllll over. Not just in your filter

 

After around 6 or so months I broke my HOB down and cleaned everything inside with a soft toothbrush. I swished the sponge in old tank water to get the gunk out.

 

At a minimum when it comes to cleaning the filter aside from the media you mostly need to worry about the intake/impeller. Just to remove build up to allow for proper flow. In the past I would know the impeller was getting gunked up do to increased noise.

probably not a one size fits all issue but doesn’t hurt to give the whole unit a thorough clean occasionally.

 

Give everything in your filter a good swish and squeeze around in a bucket of old tank water. Don't waste your money replacing the cartridge every month. Take it out cut a small slit and shake out the carbon and keep reusing the same one till it falls apart then just wrap the frame of it with polyfill or modify your filter with some sponges, plastic pot scrubbers, a small bag of ceramic media and some polyfill and you'll never have to buy cartridges again.

 

You're wasting good money on buying those cartridges.. Like the poster above said, and what I've done with my Penguin 350 biowheel. I took a cartridge and tore all that stuff off its plastic frame. I bought 2 roughly 12 inch square pads of foam, one coarse, one fine and cut out my own pads teh same size as the cartridge frame. Now I just take one coarse and one fine foam pad and slide them down into the filter along with the plastic cartridge frame. I didn't attach them to it. it just helps to slide them down all the way to the bottom of the hob by pressing them together. Once a week I just pull them out and rinse under tap. Since I also have a canister running as well I don't worry too much about washing all that BB from the foam.. if you are worried, just rinse off one foam one day,, another the next day.

 

My filters get cleaned every 2wks when not in a cycle in fish water and once a month one is fetched out and replaced but soaked well in fish water before it goes in the cage and one is left unchanged till next time so I still have good bacteria feeding through, while the 2nd is picking up more of good baceria.

 

No more replacing cartridges......

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