filter slime

[Eddie]

my hang on back penguin 170 is pretty gooey inside. There is coat of slime on the walls and such. Can I wipe all this out, or is this the bio home? I always clean off the plastic cartridge, sponge, tubing.

[Anonapersona]

Yes, this is bioslime and you will want to clean it , eventually, in stages. That is, don't clean the entire filteration system all at the same time, particularly if it is your only filter. If you clean the entire filtraiton system too well, you can have an ammonia spike, particularly with heavily fed discus.

So, wipe out the body of the filter to remove thick buildups, and clean the tubing a different day, clean the cartridge a different day. If you have multiple filters, then you can clean each more thoroughly, but again, on different days. With the Penguin, you will want to wipe the parts after the cartridge more often, as slime build up there will escape into the tank and you'll notice it looks less than clean. I also swish the biowheels in the water that drains during a water change, big clumps of bio-slime will drop off, better in the waste water than in the tank.

It is a good idea to have multiple types of filtration on any fish tank. The more precious the tank contents, the more back up I have. On my 105 gallon discus tank I have a Penguin 330, a HOT 250, and a HydroV sponge which is air powered and also powered by a battery powered backup airpump ($11 online) that comes on when the main power is off. On my regular planted tanks, I have dual canister filters. Only the smaller 29 and 10 gallon tanks do not have back up filtation.

[Howie_W]

Hi basshead,

Yes, you need to clean your filter out. All equipment should be cleaned on a regular basis. Remove any filter media and thoroughly scrub out the insides.

The only thing you want growing inside your filters are healthy bacteria colonies via your media.



Howie

[Eddie]

got it :) .

[Carol_Roberts]

With my Aqua Clears I pull out the sponges and set aside. I use a scrubby sponge to wipe down the inside of the filter and a brush to clean the impellor well and impellor. I have a brush to clean the inside of the intake tube. (I usually don't bother with the hard to reach area at the top of the intake). All inside the aqua clear is rinsed. Then I rinse the sponges under running tap water - squeezing until the water runs clear. (DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU HAVE CHLORINE IN YOUR WATER!) I rinse both sponges out at the same time and put the filter back together. I never have a problem. I have 7 tanks running. It is too much trouble to keep track of rinsing this or that in each filter. About once a month I pull the filter and clean it. I may not do the impellor and intake tube each month - you can eyeball the intake tube and see when it needs to be done. I try to get all the filters done the same week.

I have a well - maybe folks with city water and chlorine have different results. . . .