Jump to content

Water Change / Canister Filter maintenance


ThomasLC
 Share

Recommended Posts

So, I have head people say don't do a water change AND maintenance on your canister filter at the same time.  

But I also heard your supposed to use your tank water to rinse your canister items like the sponges. Never the bio-media.

Seems doing a 50% water change would reduce the amount of ammonia a filter would have to process.  Thus a water change would give the filter time to replace the bacteria you disturbed with your cleaning.  

Of course I use a bacteria prime once done.  Also I test the water again after 6 hours to insure no spikes are offuring.

I have a heavily populated Dicus community tank and do 50% water changes almost every other day.

I have two 45 gallon  trash cans on wheels I use for this.  One for waste water and one to pre the new water before pumping it into the tank.  Never the two are mixed.  

Anyway, just looking for thoughts on that.  Tweaking the contents of my canister filter is always a on going project.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do 50% water changes every week, and have for years, decades actually, I also do canister filter maintenance at the same time. I fill several 5 gallon buckets with tank water and use them to rinse the sponges, and tray with the Siporax sintered glass, I replace the water polishing pad every two weeks. Never had an issue. I use Prime when adding new water, and also sporadically add Stabilty, and, or Pristine, although the latter two are really not necessary considering, no beneficial bacteria were being harmed by rinsing in old tank water, just a little boost now and then for the huge established colonies in the filter media, and the substrate.

I think your routine is fine, probably exceeding the standards of most discus keepers, I know they exceed mine from when I used to keep discus as I used to do water changes about twice per week. Preferences in filtration media, and frequency, and type of maintenance are much varied, many insist that their standards are the only correct way, but I have to say as long as your water parameters are within the norm, you're fish aren't showing signs of deficiencies, or disease, algae isn't overtaking the tank (unless so planned),  the tank doesn't make guests think they took the wrong door to the bathroom, results speak for themselves and you must be doing something right.

There may be some roads that lead to aquarium hell, but there are many more leading to the goal of a stable, and healthy fish tank as well, more than quite a few are willing to admit.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed. I do water change with canister maintenance. I always have.   I always have 2 types of filters in each tank though either an extra sponge or hob awaiting my new projects or a backup sponge for my power outage times so I don’t know if that makes a difference.  I have never had an issue but this is just my personal observations in my tanks which are always heavily stocked with a lot of high waste producers I am not an expert. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...