Canister cleaning question

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superjohnny

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Dec 18, 2002
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Hey guys,
I've been looking for a place to learn more about tanks and I just ran across this site. I must say I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the good info here.

I have a 45 high fish tank with 2 red tail tinfoil barbs, two liperinas' (sp?), a cichlid (I think) and two Chinese algae eaters. My tank has been up and running for about three years and two moves with no dead fish. What's going on is my water seems to always be a little golden-brown. No matter how many water changes I do it just has a tint of brown. Is this normal? I got this tank/setup from a friend and he told me to clean the Fluval model 203 canister filter when the flow-rate slows or seems impeded, but I have not noticed that to be an issue so I haven't cleaned it. (yea, in like 2 years).

Would cleaning this change my water color? Does anyone know where I can learn about the right kind of filter media for that particular filter and my particular tank? I haven't cleaned the canister cause it's such a pain in the butt to get on & off.

Here are some pics of my setup. Thanks for the input :)

fish_tank_1.jpg


fish_tank_2.jpg
 
Ouch! It's amazing your canister is still flowing any water after running for 2 years straight. That could definitely be discoloring the water. Cleaning canisters is more timely than HOB filters for sure, but acceptable cleaning intervals are about every 3 to 6 months. For comparison, HOB filters should be cleaned every 4 weeks (or more).

Assuming that you don't have that much media in the canister (which is probably why you are getting away with running it this long), you should probably be prepared to buy some new media. To start, there are two or three foam pre-filters that should be rinsed thoroughly. Then there are 3 media baskets. The filter comes with Fluval Carbon (now utterly worthless, it only remains active for 2 weeks) and a small amount of Fluval Bio-Maxx. I would purchase enough Bio-Maxx to fill the two upper baskets. Fill the lower basket with Fluval Pre-filter media (basically ceramic noodles). This should provide for maxium mechanical & biological filtration while still allowing for acceptable flow rates over a long period of time. With a light bioload, you should be able to stretch filter cleanings to 6 months (while still doing regular water changes).

Hope this helps...now go clean your filter!:eek:
 
Shall I post a picture of the filter & it's insides? It might be a very ugly (or maybe just funnY :D) thing to see.... i'll take pics & post 'em.

Off to clean... Thank you for the input, I appreciate your help :)
 
no pics. pretty uneventful actually. There are three levels to the filter: the bottom 2 are ceramic "noodles" (for lack of a better term) and the top one is porus like a spongue you'd use to clean the dishes.

I rinsed it all out with dish-soap and water.









just kidding.
I used luke-warm water. Is that right? nothing special, just ran it under the faucet for a minute. Ok? I'm going to go windex the glass to make it sparkely clean next... ;)
 
hahaha he go tme with the soap part too. I immediately thought
" this poor guy is gonna get flammed for that one"



nice one,he got points for that one
 
Seems he got everyone with the soap bit!!:D
If you can get away with cleaning the media under regular tap water that's fine. You may want to use dechlorinated water to rinse the media though. Tap water can remove the beneficial bacteria in the media. If it's a quick rinse, probably won't do too much, but you may remove too many if you really rinse it. Just a thought.
 
I think he did fine rinsing the sponge part with chlorinated water. I do my filter floss that way weekly. I figure I'd vigorously clean that part myself (scrubbing hard with hands and hot water) to get everything I can out. I have a separate canister with noodles for bio. As long as he is gentle and just do something like dunk the noodles in DE-chlorinated water every few months, I think he's fine. As for the mechanical filter.....scrub as best as possible.
 
Sorry fellas, but you only get to be a n00b for a short time so ya gotta enjoy it while you got it :D

Anyway thank you for the input, I really appreciate the help. The canister's segments seemed full with the noodles so I don't know why my flow hasn't been restricted. The water that came out was pretty nasty so it needed to be done. Is there any need to change the spongue 'thingy' in the top canister compartment or the noodles?

PS, the tank looked a little cleaner this morning, I'm sure my fish appreciate your help as well ;)
 
Originally posted by Sumpin'fishy
I think he did fine rinsing the sponge part with chlorinated water.
As long as he is gentle and just do something like dunk the noodles in DE-chlorinated water every few months, I think he's fine. As for the mechanical filter.....scrub as best as possible.
Click to expand...

YUP!!

As for the changing of sponge or noodles, no need unless they start to fall apart.
 
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