Cleaning filters

LeahK

LeahK

AC Members
Jul 5, 2007
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Iowa
I was reading the thread on clogged filters on the newbie forum, and instead of hijacking it I'm posting a new thread with a related question. One person on the other thread posts a link to an article on AC that says, regarding filter changes: "Another thing if you have an HOB... is after you swoosh/squeeze the filter media/cartridge and have it ready to put back in the holder, dump the water out of the HOB reservoir as it will have some 'big stuff' in there as well" (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108685).
I never get a chance to dump the water in the reservoir. Every time I unplug my HOB's to rinse the media, they immediately start to drain whatever water is in them at the time back into the tank. No matter how quickly I try to grab them and get them draining over a bucket, they always release a bunch of crud into the tank. It clears up shortly, but I'm wondering--am I doing something wrong?
(I should say, I have a Whisper 40 and an Aqua Clear 70.)
 
I rinse mine out, there will be debris in the bottom of the filter. Its also a good time to inspect the whole unit.My media gets rinsed about once a week, and the hob's get rinsed out about every 2 months......:)
 
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You can rinse the media without unplugging the filter. You just take out the media while the filter is still running. It still may spew some gunk into the tank but not as much. Rinse the media in the tank water that has been removed from the water change and put it back in the filter unless you want to clean out the entire filter. If that is the case as soon as you unplug it it will drain into the tank again. This cannot be avoided. However, you will not have to clean the inside of the filter that much so this will not happen all of the time. Just rinsing the media in used tank water that has already been removed is easy. As long as the filter is still plugged in and up and running, it will not drain into the tank and you should be fine.

Marinemom
 
You will always release some crud, unless you clean more frequently...
 
remove the intake tube from the filter before unplugging it.
 
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