canister filter help

[marcs4020]

I went out and bought a proquatics canister filter yesterday to replace my old whisper power filter and I was wondering how often do I have to clean and change the media in my new filter. I've heard anything from a month to six months and was hoping that someone could give me some advise on that issue.
thanks a lot
Marc

 

[arkey.d]

I believe a month would do, you don't want to wait too long where the canister filter becomes a nitrate factory......

 

[22caddy]

I clean mine weekly when I do my water change.

 

[mbrands]

arkey.d,
Just to clarify, because I have a canster filter as well, you'd suggest cleaning all the media monthly or just the mechanical filtration?
I do weekly 10% changes on my 55 and I had planned to only clean the mechanical filtration ever 4-6 weeks.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[arkey.d]

Your schedule for mechanical filteration sounds good to me.
Not sure what you mean by cleaning the media? If you mean carbon, nitrex stuff like that, then I would replace by what the manufactor recommends. Like for Nitrex it's 6 months and Carbon is a bi-weekly / monthly.

 

[farslayer]

I clean my canister about once a month and replace my media (activated carbon and/or phosguard) every two weeks.

 

[mbrands]

By media I meant all the "stuff" in the canister. I've got a Fluval 304 that has a foam sort of screening for large debris, then the water passes through 3 baskets. I used a ceramic media in the first 2 baskets and these sort of bacteria balls in the third. I didn't use carbon.
I planned to only clean off the foam screen in some of my tank water (was told not to use tap) and never really clean the bacteria hosting media (ceramic pieces, balls, etc). Any advice?

 

[arkey.d]

Your right not to clean the bacteria hosting media (ceramic pieces, balls, etc. And your correct about not using tap water to clean out your foam screen, it would kill any benificial bacteria.