How often do you clean your filter?

[davidkwilson]

Just curious how often everyone cleans their filters. I’ve heard that cleaning them too often can get rid of some of the good bacteria, but leaving them too long seems to slow the flow down. I’m trying to find a good balance. What kind of schedule works for your tanks?

 

[Noroomforshoe]

Hi, welcome to fishlore!
I have more then average filtration and i feel like i can get away with more then average cleaning.
I have 2 marineland hang on the back filters with 4 filter cartriges in each, I rinse 2 cartridges a month in tap water usually.

If you feel like you need to rinse your filteer cartrides more then you do already, add bio material like bio balls, bio rings, or filter floss or chemichal free sponge. I like to keep somthing in the filter that can be removed if i need to cycle a quaranteen tank. I was useing a folded peice of craft foam and it did instant cycle my 5 gall QT tank 4 out of 5 times.

 

[GlennO]

I have canister filters that only require rinsing every couple of months. You don't say what type of filter you have but if you're noticing a slow down in the flow that would be the time to rinse the media.

 

[wranglerEd]

On my HOB filters, I use the stock sponge then some filter floss, then a small bag of bio ball material, only rinse the sponge out when water flow slows down, then usually replace the small handful of filter floss with new.. And fyi, this is maybe once every few months, not a weekly thing like water changes.. Only when needed, not as a maintenance routine.. Watch your feeding also to prevent your other issue with possible cloudy water…
Ed

 

[ruud]

I treat the whole tank as "filter media" and run my filters without filter media just to get water moving through the tank, like a "powerhead lite".

I never clean my tanks, so that is my answer to your question.

 

[bgarthe]

I run AC Fluval HOBs on all my tanks. I clean the intake prefilter sponge every three weeks or so. The HOB filter sponge and Biohome/Matrix media get rinsed out and every few months. The polyfil fiber between sponge and media in HOB gets replaced as needed when checked…..usually 3-6 weeks.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

There is no one correct answer. There are wrong answers though.

I generally clean a filter when I notice a reduction in flow. I aim to keep as much of the beneficial bacteria and archaea as possible as I can in my filter. But you have to balance with getting out as much trapped debris and mulm as possible. So I clean the mechanical portion of the filtration more often than the biological portion of the filtration.

 

[Gnop1950]

I do pretty much as folk have stated above.

For my canister filters I clean them about once every six months. Sooner if I notice a reduced flow.

I have several small in-tank filters that are primarily sponges. I remove the sponges, rinse and squeeze them out in tank water every couple of months.

In my sump system I change out the filter sock every week and clean the other media as needed, about twice a year. I also use some activated carbon and/or Purigen from time to time.

 

[tinylostwine]

I clean as need be - for my fx6 on a 120 about once every 2 years - the sponges on my 29 around the same period - the sock on my geo aquarium i have to do one at least once every 14 days. The sponges on my 600 (gallon) seems to have establish equalibrium so they own't have to be clean for several years. Anyway i'm not a fan of cleaning stuff that i don't have to clean.

 

[Fishfur]

Fwiw, I have a habit (good or bad, it is what it is) of not cleaning HOBs until they start sending water out where it isn’t supposed to exit or until the filter basket starts to rise up out of the housing because it is so clogged.

I use intake sponge covers which greatly extend the intervals between the times the filter simply has to be cleaned and I squeeze them out anytime the flow starts to slow down.

 

[A201]

I run a pre-filter foam sponge on all of my Hob filters. I give a quick squeeze of the pre-filters once a week.

The sponges and ceramic media inside the media boxes might need to be rinsed off once a year.

ruud I strongly support your method of filtration.

 

[Dechi]

When I used canister filtres I would clean then every 3-6 months.

 

[committeadmare]

It is more an 'if' for me then a 'when'. I clean them 'if' I kicked up the substrate and my sponges are clogged. In that case I usually squeeze out the sponge into a little dish of aquarium water. I also clean out the loaches when they get in.

edit: to clarify, I have multiple sponges. I use one to catch debree and then I sometimes swap them around.

 

[TClare]

My canisters get cleaned every 5 or 6 months, whenever it occurs to me that it’s about time, I don’t really notice any flow reductions. The prefilter sponge in one tank gets rinsed every 3-4 weeks approximately, in the tank with only small fish the sponge goes much longer.. Top filters (which have either canisters or a pre filter sponge before them) go several months before they are cleaned.

 

[anthonywalton]

Great thread—and the range of answers here really shows there's no single "right" schedule. The consensus seems to be: clean when flow slows, not on a fixed calendar.

A few things that stood out to me:

Pre-filter sponges are the real MVP. Several of you mentioned intake sponge covers (Fishfur, A201, bgarthe), and I have to agree—they're the easiest way to extend the interval between full filter cleanings. A quick squeeze in tank water every week or two keeps the main media cleaner for much longer.

Rinse mechanical media, preserve biological media. Rusty_Shackleford's point about balancing debris removal with preserving beneficial bacteria is spot on. Rinsing sponges in tank water (not tap) protects the bacteria colony, while replacing filter floss or polyfil as needed keeps the mechanical side working.

Watch your flow, not the calendar. Whether it's a canister every six months (Gnop1950), an FX6 every two years (tinylostwine), or an HOB only when the basket starts rising (Fishfur), the common thread is responding to reduced flow rather than a schedule.

One caution for anyone new to this: when you do clean, avoid over-rinsing the biological media—a gentle squeeze is enough. And if you notice cloudy water or a slowdown that doesn't improve after cleaning, check your feeding habits first (as wranglerEd mentioned).

 

[tinylostwine]

Pre-filter sponges are the real MVP. Several of you mentioned intake sponge covers (Fishfur, A201, bgarthe), and I have to agree—they're the easiest way to extend the interval between full filter cleanings. A quick squeeze in tank water every week or two keeps the main media cleaner for much longer.

There is no reason to use tank water - i use tap water with my prefilters, sponges and even filter media. The old wives tale it will wipe out your biological filtration is imho hogwash. there is a video that talks about it somewhere and the reality of the situation though i can't find the link.

In any event at least for me despite the prefilter being an 8x4 or 10x5 i forget the exact size sponge it represents a minor component of the overall biofilttration and i use running water to clean it after all by the time i start cleaning such a large sponge it is rather densely populated with crud.

Anyway i suppose there might be minor traces of chlorine in the water but if there is the fishes never yelled about it or rolled over and played dead so i guess it didn't bother them - though one of the angels did bite my finger this morning so maybe there was a reason for that.