# My 10 gallon tank's Aquaclear filter



## lamonsas (May 31, 2007)

Hey guys so i had my 10 gallon tank running for like a year and some time already and a few months ago when i changed the undergravel filter to an AQUACLEAR filter for 10-30 Gallon tanks , so until now its been a few months and i never cleaned the filter, so just tonight i got curious and i pulled out the 3 level media holder thats in the filter and the green stuff escaped into the tank, i belive thats bacteria right? anyway i should have stoped the filter before i guess but anyway i stuck the holder back in and ill leave it like that over night to settle the way it was. 

But tommorow id like to clean the filter so what should i do, throw all that green stuff thats stuck in the filter's media to the garbage and slightly rinse the media sponge with aquarium water? i have the layers, one is a sponge and the other is the BioMAX.

so yea. i should stop the filter, and then take the filter with me and throw all that green stuff that got collected in the filter all this time into the garbage and that should be it yea?


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

yep, trash the the green gunk it is probably uneaten food and algae. One drawback to the aquaclear is the clear box that lets light get to the media to grow algae. Unplug the filter, rinse the media in old tank water. Keep dunking and squeezing the sponge until nothing else comes out. Then put it back. The good thing about the aquaclear is that the sponge holds lots of bacteria and lasts a long time.


----------



## lamonsas (May 31, 2007)

ok man so im going to UNPLUG the filter, take the filter clip off the tank and tank the filter with me to the trash can, then ill take out the cartidage and all the Thick green stuff will start coming out and ill drop all that stuff into the trash, then i will take some water from my 10 gallon tank into a bucket, and ill keep dunking the SPONGE ONLY into the water and squiz out all the dirt thats in it, or thats not a good thing to do? wont i be throwing away bacteria?


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Some bacteria will get flushed, but some will cling to the sponge and bacteria #s can double in hours. Even if its so icky you have to clean it in tap water (which kill some bacteria with chlorine), bacteria numbers will back to normal in a couple of days, just feed lightly. When you don't clean your filter, the extra crud in there slowly breaks down into nitrates, not a problem if you've kept up the water changes. But that crud can also clog the filter. Worst case, water overflows out the back onto your floor. Rinse all the media in water change water to get off loose crud. Use the tap only if you have to, and then don't use tap water on all the media, just some.


----------



## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

I unplug the filter, pop out the cartridge with the media in it, swish it and squeeze some of the grime out of it it in a bucketful of water, and then pop everything back in. Works fine. I squeeze the sponge until it resumes a somewhat-yellow color.


----------



## lamonsas (May 31, 2007)

ill unplug the filter and take it with me to the trash can , ill pop out the cartitege and let all that green crud and dirt fall into trash and ill put the cartitage back in, i dont want to wash anything and kill bacteria because thats my worst nightmare, that should be enough right? 

Ill check the sponge, if it really needs cleaning then ill squeeze it and get dirt out ofvit but if its not really dirty ill just let it be, i just want to get all that stuck crud out of there asap cant wait to get home as im at work right now,


----------



## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Don't worry, it's not that big of a deal. Rinsing isn't going to get rid of all the bacteria. Just don't go too crazy with it.


----------

