How often you clean your cannister filter

[jyilailong]

Just wondering how often should cannister filter use for CRS tank need to be clean? Is there a need or risk of doing it? Will it be enough if just to clean the sponge that use to block the inlet of the cannister filter? Please share you experience.

[Repz]

i clean mine every quarter
i do not completely wash all media , i just wash the sponge in tank water and replace wool. (Eden 501 Canister Filter)
i have had no deaths when i played with the filter, as long as i don't change the tank water when i clean the filter

[mikedudekmike]

I tend to clean my filter media about every six months by emptying water from my aquarium into a bucket, never rinse with tap water, and give all my medium a good rinse. I usually add new floss and peat then too. Never had any deaths as a result.

I use an Eheim Classic Canister filter.

[jyilailong]

Thanks for all advise. Just cleaned my filter two to three weeks back and no casualties observed since cleaning. I'm suprise to see that the water inside my cannister filter is dark coffee in colour. Due to not enough tank (I'm using 2 ft tank) water, I used tap water to flush the filter material (Do a fast one for the ceramic ring). Then I top up the cannister filter with tank water before assembly back to tank. As per usual of changing water, I took a week to slowly top up the tank water by dripping. Observed that the shrimp are now more happy and don't have the previouly smell from the tank water anymore. This is the first time I clean the cannister filter after more than half a year of tank setup. I'm using a cannister filter that good enough to support a 4 ft tank to run a 2 ft tank. Very minimum feeding (max one a day). Think every 3 month cleaning is necessary that I learn from this experience.

[Legacy]

I clean my filter every 2 month.

[retardo]

Once every 2-3 months. Usually, I do as others do, rinse out the filter media in old tank water, but I have on occasion, rinsed out all the media and cleaned out the entire filter in tap water. In general, this is not recommended. However, I have a heavily planted tank; the plants buffer any ammonia/nitrate/nitrite spikes during the re-cycling process.