5 Gallon Tank How often to clean sponge filter?

Hi. I have a new red cherry shrimp aquarium and I was wondering if there is any point to cleaning my sponge filter once a week when I do my water changes? It looks like this after 5 days. I heard shrimp like eating from it so I don't know if it's counter productive. Would I clean it in tap water or dechlorinated water? Also I was told to do 25% water changes weekly by my LFS. But then I read online that I only need to do 10%. What do you think? I have 6 shrimp and a few baby snails.

 

Looks like the picture did not come through. Weekly cleaning sounds a bit like overkill with the bioload and cleaning crew. What are your water parameters?
I normally clean sponges when the flow starts to slow down. Cleaning means just squeezing it in tankwater until the major gunk is gone.
I am not a shrimp expert (did not have the courage to start), but heard the smaller more frequent water changes are better tolerated than weekly bigger water changes.

 

I personally clean mine, every 1-2 weeks and squeeze it in a bucket of water i took from the tank.But I don't have as small a bioload as you, you might have to test it out a bit, maybe every 3 weeks, depends, how many shrimp? how big is your tank?

 

Looks like the picture did not come through. Weekly cleaning sounds a bit like overkill with the bioload and cleaning crew. What are your water parameters?
I normally clean sponges when the flow starts to slow down. Cleaning means just squeezing it in tankwater until the major gunk is gone.
I am not a shrimp expert (did not have the courage to start), but heard the smaller more frequent water changes are better tolerated than weekly bigger water changes.

I personally clean mine, every 1-2 weeks and squeeze it in a bucket of water i took from the tank.But I don't have as small a bioload as you, you might have to test it out a bit, maybe every 3 weeks, depends, how many shrimp? how big is your tank?

21 litres

 

That looks pretty clean. If it is disturbing you, can you just swish the sponge in some tank water (syphoned during the water change)? No squeeze necessary.

 

Squeeze it out in a bucket of tank water once a week, the aim is to reduce the gunk in it by about 50%.