How often does everyone change their filter floss/cotton wool from your external filters?

How about the Wet n Dry filter floss/cotton wool?

And anything else that needs maintenance or changing in filtration systems?

blinky I just love these smilies...they make me laugh everytime Giggly

So, sorry if i over do it CH Wiggle it just a little bit!

Geelite I only change my filter floss when I do maintance on my canister filters every other week. All other pads I just rinse in tank water when I do my water changes. I hope that helps! Good Job

I thought on freshwater it was every two months Hmmmm ...that's what i also heard from other people Hmmmm Thanx for sharing.

I only do maintenace on my Canisters and HOBs every 2-3 months or if I notice the flow drop off I'll clean it more often. I only rinse out my media in a bucket of tank water and reuse it but that's my system. Whatever works for you is a good system!

Cheers!!!

Geelite I should have added that the only reason why I do mine maintenance so frequently is because of the fish I keep. The discus are very sensitive, that's why I do it so often.

Thanx for sharing Good Job

Oh yes of course they are. I will be getting Discus once i get my fish breeding room thingy up and going...which is getting worked on as we speak Bouncy

In my Rena XP3, I change it about every 2-3 months!

My AC110, I work on it once a month!

Cheers!!! my friend.

We have double filtration on all of our tanks, and we make sure to never change out the filter media on both filters at once.

For the most part, we just watch for the flow to diminish, but most of the time, we don't replace with new media, we just rinse out the old media. I would say we might totally replace the filter media 2-3 times a year.

Kim

Thanx for sharing Kim.

When you say rinse you are talking about the cotton/floss right? I was thinking of replacing mine every 2 months, i am used to doing that cause of my SW habbit, i used to replace that weekly, not rinse. But i guess FW is different.

What about your GAC? I was thinking of changing my carbon every 6 weeks.

I rinse my sponges and/or cartridges and reuse them - how often depends on which tank and what type of filter. Some are overstocked and need much more attention.

The floss (I use stuffing material from the craft store) I throw out every time. It gets so dirty and it's cheap enough to replace often.

I normally don't mess with the bio media. I just put it in a bucket of dechlorinated water while I take care of the rest of the filter.

And I don't use carbon. Good Job

Oh really Aura, you dont use carbon? never? Do you have a reason for not using GAC?

How about everyone else??? Hmmmm

I used to use carbon many years ago, but have heard that it isn't necessary so I haven't used it in years. Some of my filters use cartridges that contain a tiny amount of carbon in them, but I don't replace those cartridges often - I just wash them and reuse several times.

I haven't had any water quality problems, so I'm assuming that it's okay not to run carbon in the filters.

GAC.....I don't even know what that is. Blush

Cool and the gang, thanx for the info Cheers!!!

GAC = Granular Activated Carbon

Most of my filters have either pre-built cartridges or use sponges and carbon bags. I don't use floss in any of my tanks because of the fact that it needs to be changed so often. Haven't used it in years!

We do use carbon, but I don't change it any more often than I do the rest of my filter media. It gets a good rinse when needed with tank water, and we'll replace it a couple of times a year, but that's it.

Supposedly, when using carbon, you're only getting active benefits from it for the first 10 days or so, so what I'm doing is probably pointless...But...I do believe that it helps keep that "fishy" odour down, and the old school fish keeper inside my brain won't let me stop using it!

Kim

Well i do know that GAC only works for a couple of weeks and then just gets clogged by debris, and then it just turns into an area for beneficial bacteria like ceramic rings or sponges...just thought i would share that :blink:

I have kept and bred africans since I was a kid back in the early 80's so Im not some newbie trying to pull off acts of negligence to my fish without experience behind it. I have some heavily stocked tanks which would seem to suggest that I have to clean my filters frequently. Brace yourself- what works for me would horrify most hobbyists. I only feed my fish two or three times a week. Thats simply all they need
Now I clean my filters about every 3-4 months because I feed pellet and not flake food. Not much winds up in the filter. The flow doesnt diminish quickly.

I don't use carbon either, Geelite!

I fill up that space in my Rena XP3 with ceramic rings.

I run my AC110 with only the sponge and two bags of ceramic rings
on top!

Carbon does have some benefits IMO, such as odor removal and
removing meds after a treatment.

Although Les' approach to fish keeping would be somewhat unorthodox
to many aquarists, it does work for him. And that's all that matters.

That's the great thing about this hobby, what works for some may
or may not work for you or everyone.

Just find out what works best for you and stick with it!

Consistency is the key to success in this hobby for the most part!

Cheers!!! for sharing Les and PB.

hey, before all of you freak, I will try and take some pics over the coming weekend- my fish arent underfed and have no shrunken bellies... the really do get enough to eat by eating every other day. Many people have overweight dogs, just as many hobbyists overfeed their fish. Its really not as unorthodox as you might initially think Hmmmm

i clean my wetdry once a year, i have never cleaned my fluval FX5's (over a year) and i changed the eheim 2217's every 4 monthes or so. never had any real problems and i feed more then once a day usually.

Like Kim, I use double filtration, sometimes triple filtration depending on stock in the tank. I rinse my HOB filter material with every water change, and the cannister filter material if I notice a decrease in out put. I totaly change all of the materials twice a year. Not all at the same time, I take a week between filters per tank, that way you dont loose the bateria colony for the entire tank.

WOW Bradley, you serious??? and you get fry and breed too?