Canister filter not dirty...?

[megatrev62]

Hello all, I just cleaned out one of the two XP2 canisters and found it extremely clean. The sponges were clean to the point I am concerned. Both filters have pre filter sponge on them which I put there about 2 weeks ago. I have never squeezed any filter without having dark water remain. When the sponges were squeezed I was very surprised on how clean the water was. Is there enough of the bad stuff reaching the filters? Is there a need to be concerned at all. I mean it seems I didn't need to clean the filter at all....and the last time was about 3-4 weeks ago. Thanks

[Phillydubs]

Sorry I am not familiar with your set up or husbandry. Care to share what you are working with and your routine ?

Do you siphon food up after feedings? How often do you change water etc?

Were the sponge filters Dirty? Have you seen any issues with your fish.

Sounds to me off the bat like you just have a clean system and seems like you clean your stuff good and often so they shouldn't be too bad especially w the prefilters. You'd be surprised how much that helps.

Most people wait months to clean canisters and that's when the grossness comes in but your cleaning 3-4 weeks so looks like you are doing a good job

[megatrev62]

Thanks. I have never used pre filter sponge on the intakes only when there were fry. I am new to discus keeping and want to keep up with a non traditional upkeep(general fish keeping) as opposed to discus keeping, ie.. big water changes and frequent, and it was suggested to place the pre filter sponge on the intakes so that cleaning the filter would not be a frequent chore. I was just surprised at how eficint they seem to work. I don't siphon food after feedings, but clean the floor of the tank with the water changes. I'm trying to tweak the tank on the WC'S and right now am doing 50-75% every day pretty much. The fish are doing fine so that would be an indication that things are good.


The reason I posted this was the cleanliness of the sponges in the filter. I have never experienced that and needed to ask if it's ok. I would say that maybe 2-3 months before I do it again it seems. Thanks again

And the prefilters are cleaned with tap every other day.

[DJW]

I only have one tank that you might with some forgiveness call a display tank, and it has a canister filter. Because the prefilter sponge on the intake has a finer pore size than the sponge within the canister, the canister itself stays fairly clean. I look inside and rinse the innards about once a month but not much cleaning is needed. Its important to keep crud out of the canister, and I clean the pre-filter daily.

[rickztahone]

This isn't a problem. You do daily water changes, this equals cleaner tank, which means that the sponges will remain cleaner.

[Phillydubs]

OP - Just as a follow-up... I cleaned the HOB's on both of my tanks yesterday. Usually I do this monthly if not sooner, but I have had a lot of chaos in my life and just getting water changes done can be a task, let alone cleaning the filters...

So, as you can imagine, I was expecting them to be cruddy. Yet to my surprise, they were barely dirty...

So, I guess I proved my initial point to you and even myself, that a well maintained tank, with good prefilters and good prefilter cleaning leaves the filtration rather clean...

I also run a big hydro sponge on the opposite end of my hob, with a large pump and that tends to be the main source of filtration as it seems all the debris is pulled that way and I find that to be the dirtiest section when I clean...

[zergling]

I think that sounds about right with a prefilter sponge on the intake of a canister filter. Squeeze out your prefilter sponge in a bucket of old tank water and it should be dirty, because it's stopping all that detritus from getting into the sponges inside the canister are "clean".

The drawback here is that if your prefilter sponge gets full / clogged, it will slow the water flow to the rest of the filter. The good thing is it's easier to clean the prefilter sponge than all the media inside the canister.

Squeeze out your prefilter sponge after a week. If it's really dirty, then you know you have to do it weekly. If not, try 2 weeks.

In my tank, 65gal with XP4, I squeeze out the prefilter sponge every 1-2 weeks. I've seen that if I let it go for 3 weeks, there will be an obvious decrease in water flow.

[Phillydubs]

I squeeze mine daily it's super easy and a no Brainer not to. You should try to squeeze yours more and not worry.

[megatrev62]

Thank you folks. Using cut up aquaclear sponges but looking for black sponges to blend in with the background.

[Phillydubs]

Order the fluval ones on Amazon that's what I do

[Cosmo]

check jehmco.com, they have just about every type of pre-filter you could ever need, most if not all are black too :) If you're cannisters are staying cleaner since you put the pre-filters on, that is your answer, just don't forget to clean the pre-filters occassionally

[Filip]

I wrap the canister and filter pump intakes with filter floss.
I wash the filter floss every 4-5 days and they turn 5 gallon bucket with water absolutely black from all the crud and crap.
I clean my canister every 3-4 months , but there is really nothing to clean from it .Water buckets barely turn yellowish after rinsing the canister media in them.
My canister is packed only with coarse bio-media and there is nothing to hold crud in it like sponges or floss.

[pitdogg2]

Thank you folks. Using cut up aquaclear sponges but looking for black sponges to blend in with the background.

Marineland reverse flow powerhead sponges

kens has the best price
http://www.kensfish.com/aquarium-supplies/powerheads/replacement-sponge-penguin-660-reverse-flow-power-head.html


http://www.petmountain.com/product/aquarium-filter-mechanical-media/11442-510963/marineland-reverse-flow-power-head-pre-filter-sponge-replacement.html