When To Clean My AquaOne 1800 external canister filter?

HI everyone! May I have some more advice please? My 356L tank is now cycled, and everything is going really well. I set it up end July, started stocking it mid-end August, and now have 35 mixed community fish. I was advised not to clean my filter for the first 8-10 weeks to allow good bacteria to colonise. I've done fortnightly 25% water changes after all levels settled down.

My water is crystal clear, but I'm thinking it's time for a filter clean. I have a AquaOne 1800 external canister filter, which I modified with two extra layers of fine and coarse filter medium.

So, should I clean my filter now or wait a bit longer?

When I do clean my filter, how thorough should I be? Do I just gently rinse filter pads and get rid of the main green smelly stuff, or be really particular and make it look new again? I don't want to kill off all the good bacteria, so how much do I clean?

Also, I have quality clean rainwater, plus also two large garden ponds (eg. 4500L) which are crystal clear and have been cycled for a long time. When I clean my filter, could I use my pond water (pond has goldfish and small native cold water fish plus many plants) or would rainwater be better to use? Any ideas and suggestions gratefully received!

 

HI everyone! May I have some more advice please? My 356L tank is now cycled, and everything is going really well. I set it up end July, started stocking it mid-end August, and now have 35 mixed community fish. I was advised not to clean my filter for the first 8-10 weeks to allow good bacteria to colonise. I've done fortnightly 25% water changes after all levels settled down.

My water is crystal clear, but I'm thinking it's time for a filter clean. I have a AquaOne 1800 external canister filter, which I modified with two extra layers of fine and coarse filter medium.

So, should I clean my filter now or wait a bit longer?

When I do clean my filter, how thorough should I be? Do I just gently rinse filter pads and get rid of the main green smelly stuff, or be really particular and make it look new again? I don't want to kill off all the good bacteria, so how much do I clean?

Also, I have quality clean rainwater, plus also two large garden ponds (eg. 4500L) which are crystal clear and have been cycled for a long time. When I clean my filter, could I use my pond water (pond has goldfish and small native cold water fish plus many plants) or would rainwater be better to use? Any ideas and suggestions gratefully received!

I usually clean my canisters out when the flow of water is poor. You can take old tank water after a water change and just swish and wring the foam padding and floss in there to remove all the mulm and debris or you can do the same in dechlorinated water. DO NOT use tap water that has not been treated with dechlorinator as the chlorine in the water will wipe out your beneficial bacterial and cycle. Also, don’t let things sit and dry out, reassemble and get the filter going again.

Best of luck.

 

I usually clean my canisters out when the flow of water is poor. You can take old tank water after a water change and just swish and wring the foam padding and floss in there to remove all the mulm and debris or you can do the same in dechlorinated water. DO NOT use tap water that has not been treated with dechlorinator as the chlorine in the water will wipe out your beneficial bacterial and cycle. Also, don’t let things sit and dry out, reassemble and get the filter going again.

Best of luck.

Hi! Thanks for your reply. It may seem a silly question, but how do I know when water flow is poor? I have a perforated metal bar which returns water to tank - it is about 2-3mm underwater to reduce noise - but it breaks up the water surface and creates a current. How do I know if it is not returning sufficient water? Thanks for your help

 

I use HOB's and canisters on all our aquariums. I clean them on a biweekly rotation. One week canisters and then the next week the HOB's.

That way there is no risk of breaking cycle.

Exporting the organics before they break down keeps the water in good condition.

 

every water change

 

I never change my canister until about every 4-6 months. Mainly 6 months.

 

My experience has been that the cleaning part is just getting rid of "mulm." I get the baskets out, one by one. Throw out old water (often black and yucky-- this is great for garden plants (non-edible). Have several places to put the parts where there is no problem with water, swish bio balls out, squeeze sponges. Do not let any of the filter parts dry out. Basically just "swish." You want to remove mulm, not scrub off any "slime coat."

I generally have about 3 buckets ready for this job. A dump bucket, a rinse bucket, and a bucket of clear water to put filter parts in so they don't dry out (all dechlorinated water). The reason that I keep the water the same temperature as the tank is because the bacteria is a living thing, and I believe super cold or hot water will kill it. (I have no idea, but this is a belief, not a fact).

I use dechlorinated tap water at the same temperature as the aquarium. I think the main thing to remember is that now, the filter is populated with living creatures. Don't rub, don't use hot water, etc. Don't let anything dry out. The entire job should only take about 10 minutes.

How often? I have gone as long as 6 months. I think every 2-3 months or so is a better timeline. So, 3-4 times a year. It really depends on your filter size (amount of medium) and bioload.

So if you set it up last summer, it is probably a good time for a clean out.

 

For canisters, since you can't easily notice a slowdown in flow, I would say every month if you have a dirty tank, and up to 6 months in lightly stocked tanks. The easiest way to do it is after a month, go clean it out. If it looks really good still, try in 2 months, then 3. As long as there isn't much to clean, you're doing fine. If your sponges are making black water for a few minutes while rinsing, maybe clean a bit more often.

 

Something to consider. The bacteria does not care if the organics are in the aquarium or in the filter, they are broken down. If the point of water changes is to keep nitrates under control does it not make more sense to remove the organics before they are completely broken down? Unless frequent water changes are something you enjoy.

 

Hi! Thanks for your reply. It may seem a silly question, but how do I know when water flow is poor? I have a perforated metal bar which returns water to tank - it is about 2-3mm underwater to reduce noise - but it breaks up the water surface and creates a current. How do I know if it is not returning sufficient water? Thanks for your help

Mines visible based on the current caused by the outflow.

 

if you have carbon, replace the carbon every 4-6 weeks, and rinse all the other filter material out with some tank water while you have the canister open.

you can adjust how often you clean, its not set in stone. it will depend on your specific tank/setup/bioload. if there's a lot of muck after 6 weeks, you can clean every 5 weeks, and if there's still a lot of muck, then reduce to every 4 weeks, etc.

 

When using a canister, it will be trial and error.

I got my first canister a few months ago, and found I was opening it up too often!

I am still trying to properly determine at what intervals to open it up and clean the media.

I googled searched for your Aqua One 1800. I couldn't find the 1800, but PondGuru on Youtube had very high praises for the Aqua One 1200 he had on his video.

Really just depends on what type of media you are using.

Typically sponges are rinsed in tank water in a bucket, squeezed and reused.

The "coarse and fine filter medium" you mentioned will all depend how well it holds up after it is rinsed. If it's made of sponge, then re-use. It it's a poly filter pad material, if it hasn't broken down after rinsing it, then use it again. If it's coming apart, replace it.

In my canister's 2nd tray, it is filled with PolyFill (poly fibers used to stuff pillows from craft stores) topped with 2 layers of bonded poly filter mat. I buy it in 12"x72" roll and cut it to size for all my filters. The PolyFill gets tossed when cleaning because it's so cheap. Sometimes I can rinse the poly filter mat and re-use it, but many times it has compressed so much or it's so dirty I toss it also.

Although a lot of beneficial bacteria will be in the sponges, but the majority will all be in your bio-media. Very little will be in the PolyFill or bonded poly filter pads.

The bio-media in my Aquaclear hang-on-back filters are bagged. In my canister it is loose in the trays. I rinse both with tank water in a bucket. I have enough mechanical filtration that my bio-media rarely gets very dirty.

Wraithen mentioned cleaning your canister after 30 days and guage how dirty it was. Then extend the interval each time until you dial the time frame in just right.

Does your Aqua One canister send the water to the bottom then up through the trays, or from the top then down through the trays and back out to the tank?

 

I clean my FX4 every 5 to 6 weeks. Never with tap water!!!

 

Thanks for your advice Tony .

I did a water change, and saved all the water into a big container. Then used this water to do initial filter clean - all the really smelly gunky stuff.

Then I got a bucket of our filtered de-chlorinated water to do final rinse of filter pads etc.

Assembled everything again and water levels looking ok (nitrates a bit high - between 20-30, but I expected that) so will test again tomorrow and see what's happening.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me - much appreciated