Cleaning Filters

[jimc58]

I have read that you should not clean certain filters because you will get rid of the bacteria one patiently waited to grow as the tank cycled. On the other hand, I have also read where people change their filters after a given amount of time. So, my question is which filters should I be cleaning/replacing, and which ones should I not do anything to in order to not disturb the bacteria? I have an Emporer 400 filter with the wheels, charcoal filters, and one other set of filters with some cotton looking stuff in it. I also have filters on both of the power heads in the tank. And lastly, there is the skimmer which I empty and clean as needed. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[broomer5]

I can tell you what I do.
If the filter media is being used as a BIOLOGICAL filter - and you want to maintain a healty population of bacteria - you can gently rinse the media in warm tank water ( as you do a water change use the old tankwater before discarding it ) to remove any detritus or debris.
Doing so this way will help to protect the bacteria. Keep them wet and warm with saltwater.
If it's a MECHANICAL filter, used only for removing detritus or debris - I clean these sponge prefilters or floss or pads with CHLORINATED TAP WATER first - which will kill bacteria, then I rinse them off in RO water treated with Amquel to remove any unwanted residual chlorine, then a final rinse in plain RO/DI water before placing back into service.
I do NOT want these mechanical filters to become biological filters - so I treat them differently.
The key for me is first distringuishing which filters are for BIO and which filters are for MECHANICAL - then clean and rinse them accordingly.
I have live rock and a DSB for most of my biofiltration - so all prefilter sponges and pads are strictly used as mechanical filters - which I do not want to promote and maintain bacteria populations within.
It all depends on how your tank filtration is set up - what is bio and what is mech.
At least that is how I approach cleaning media and all components/

 

[jimc58]

Thanks for the information. It makes things clearer... I imagine then that the only *filter* in my system I shouldn't clean are the wheels for the Emporer filter, and that the LS/LR does the bulk of the bio filtering.

 

[stacy]

The filters in the emperor "with the cotton looking stuff", is used for mechanical filtration. I usually clean mine once a week, and replace them ounce a month. The same goes for the filters on your powerheads. I had these on for a while, but removed them. They didn't seem to help that much. The bio-wheel on the emperor does contain beneficial bacteria, but alot of posts I've read say that after a while they can create a nitrate problem. I've been running mine for over a year and havn't had any problems with them. HTH