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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

cleaning external filters

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17 Feb 2016 14:34 #1 by robert (robert carter)
just wondering how often should I clean my external filters . tank is 350 community tropical, heavy stocked mostly small tetras. one external is an aqua one cf1200 this filter has been pimped and has one tray of sponges and two trays of bio home media , the second external is a crystal profit e1500 with original media mostly sponges , my thoughts were cf1200 as biological filtration e1500 mercanical filtration . all levels in the tank are currenly perfect . gave the cf1200 a quick wash out last night . I was hoping that I would get away with cleaning one filter each month so making a two month cycle between cleaning . what are peoples views on this

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17 Feb 2016 15:07 #2 by Ski (Alan McGee)
I run FX5's on my tanks and i clean them every second month. Heavily stocked as well and never had a problem.

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17 Feb 2016 15:24 #3 by alan 64 (alan)
i think it all depends on ur stoc realy and hoe heavy the fish are being fed on my discus tank i use floss as a pre filter and the filters are never realy dirty but i change the floss twice a week

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17 Feb 2016 23:29 #4 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
I think Alan is right,ive kept canister filters and went months without changing or cleaning them...if you notice the flow lessen then its a sure sign it needs cleaning...i think youd be fine every 2 months...the filter floss will be the worst of it anyhow.

Gavin

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18 Feb 2016 06:17 #5 by gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
Mechanical - Weekly .........Good scrub under the tap!

Biological - Every 2 Months ......Swoosh the media around in tank water to remove only heavy gunk!

Also i clean the filter pumps and impellers when doing the Biological media every 2 months to avoid them seizing up....

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19 Feb 2016 05:43 #6 by paulv (paul vickers)
I've a sump and clean the sponges and floss every month. I'd say your routine is perfect.

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24 Feb 2016 21:19 #7 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
When I ran external filters I found that once you keep the floss clean and that depends on stock and what food is going in, for me with cichlids being the dirtiest I'd change it every 3 days so the crap doesn't get much of a chance to cause problems inside the filter, also if you find the floss is mankey I'd change it every 2 days, it's less work for the rest of the filtration to cope with and helps keep nitrates down
When cleaning other media a very quick shake in the tank water you've taking out for the water change, Deffo don't over shake because you will loose way to much beneficial good bacteria

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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24 Feb 2016 22:21 - 24 Feb 2016 22:22 #8 by robert (robert carter)
But to get to the floss in my externals you have to strip them ,something I was hoping not to do every couple of days
Last edit: 24 Feb 2016 22:22 by robert (robert carter). Reason: wrong time span posted

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24 Feb 2016 23:26 #9 by nomad (pat murphy)
Running a 1501 and always rinsed the top sponges in the canister filter in tank water,so are you saying that washing them in tap water would,nt have an adverse effect on beneficial bacteria because of having other media...ceramic bio balls etc acting as biological,cheers..

Mechanical - Weekly .........Good scrub under the tap!

Biological - Every 2 Months ......Swoosh the media around in tank water to remove only heavy gunk!

Also i clean the filter pumps and impellers when doing the Biological media every 2 months to avoid them seizing up....

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25 Feb 2016 09:00 #10 by gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
Mechanical media is exactly that (Mechanical) Its only there to keep all the big gunk out of the rest of the biological filter media....

Once you dont rinse your biological media under tap water you will have no problems...

In fact changing mechanical filter flosses on a regular basis is just a waste of cash (Its a manufacturers money making scheme)...Just take them out and wash them under the tap and replace them when they eventually start falling apart...

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25 Feb 2016 20:56 #11 by nomad (pat murphy)

Mechanical media is exactly that (Mechanical) Its only there to keep all the big gunk out of the rest of the biological filter media....

Once you dont rinse your biological media under tap water you will have no problems...

In fact changing mechanical filter flosses on a regular basis is just a waste of cash (Its a manufacturers money making scheme)...Just take them out and wash them under the tap and replace them when they eventually start falling apart...


Cheers for that Eddie,i,m running a 1501 crystal profi and think their flow design is a bit odd,If your familia with the set up the water runs down two sides to beneath the lowest basket containing biological media then water flow rises up through all baskits to the get to the top baskit containing course and medium sponges.At the top of the filter at the two sides of water intake there is some course sponge but I found that everthing was flowing through It and manking the biological media baskits..I could never get fine particles out of the water so I had to put a layer of filter wool on top of the course sponge at the top two sides and it helped but I have to open the filter on part changes weekly and give a good washing out in TAP water LOL
I think it should be stated in case beginers to fishkeeping read these posts that it is fine to wash out sponges in TAP water when you also have biological media in that filter,but if you are running the likes of internal filters that just contain sponges that they must be washed in AQUARIUM water so that you don't kill off the benefitial bacteria,

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25 Feb 2016 21:16 #12 by robert (robert carter)
Certainly the 1501 has a bit of an odd ball flow through , I do like you find the so called prefilters are not the greatest , I changed my media around a bit putting sponges coarse ,medium fine then a bit of floss and finally the biological balls , but I really use this filter as mercanical filtration as I also have a cf 1200 with 3kg bio home media in it as biological, seems to work for me all levels are good

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25 Feb 2016 21:58 #13 by nomad (pat murphy)
I replaced the rubber seal that went on top of the top tray because it was pretty flimsy and easy to leak and replace the plate that is under the top motor head with an incorporated rubber seal plate.I had the filter wool on top of the course sponges on the upper two sides and found when they gunked up I had particles in the tank,i had a suspicion that the water flow instead of being directed down the sides was re routing itself to a degree through the new seal so bypassing the normal route.
When I took off the top of the filter and looked at the spongies at the top centre of the filter they were manky in a short time and I would find at least 6 of seven shrimp on top of the spongies in there.

edquote="robert" post=186196]Certainly the 1501 has a bit of an odd ball flow through , I do like you find the so called prefilters are not the greatest , I changed my media around a bit putting sponges coarse ,medium fine then a bit of floss and finally the biological balls , but I really use this filter as mercanical filtration as I also have a cf 1200 with 3kg bio home media in it as biological, seems to work for me all levels are good[/quote]

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