fluval 4 filter cleaning

anyone know how often you supposed to clean these out, i had a squint at the instructions and it was on about cleaning one part once a fortnight or changing it, im assuming its the bag with polystyrene in?

do these often jam up, cause when i cleaned it it wouldnt come back on i had to give it a tap, its a brand new unit too. any ideas or help?

i might be wrong but im not sure if the polystyrene stuff is still in the bag, is this right. im assuming its wrong.

these polystrene bits do you have a pic

no mate a think they in a bag, that cant be right can it

are they like hard cyilinders

yes bud, ive took em out and put them in the plastic cage.

I think its media, basically what the bacteria grow on. I recon its only the sponges you want to clean with tank water one a fortnight and rinse the media tray every month, again with tank water.

PS use water your throwing away to was them as you dont want to put it back in the tank.

yeah i fvcked up there hodgy

What you done mate?

Its fine taking the media out the bag btw

Yer the only one I've ever left in the bag is the carbon, cos it's sooo messy : (

Carbon? Have i done something wrong ere?

The stuff i took out is in the very middle chamber. the outside chambers have sponges in.

you would know if its carbon as its black and fine, the balls should be white......Die is right, if you have carbon keep it bagged. Media is ok to have loose in the tray

it looks like white/green rabbit food pellets if that makes sense. it didnt fill the full chamber when i emptied bag. is this right.

Yeh it will be media, sounds right.....if I was you either order some more bio media (fluval bio max) or equivalent and it will boost the bacteria in your filter, allowing more fish etc

where would you recommend buying it hodgy

ive added tablets to sort tank out and i also used other media out of an established filter on starting

It depends whether you want branded or cheap.....its all about surface area....

I use a mix of media, so i maximise. I'd have a look online, and ebay generally good, but really search for good price. Ceramic media is the best search

ordered some bud, so i just need to pack that little plastic tubs with the media yeah?

Give the new ceramic media a good rinse with tank water and throw the water away lol then put them into the filter. This way you wont have any dust go into the tank and cloud it up. After a few weeks it should be very mature, however you still need to add fish slowly. This is because there will only be as much bacteria living in you filter to the amount of ammonia they can eat, therefore if you throw too many fish in at once/too many to quickly your filter wont be able to cope and you will have problems.

Every Aquarium owner does it until we learn to be patient, I'm still yet to learn lol however I haven't bought any fish for a few weeks....but its the fish auction this weekend and I know I'm going to go mad lmao

can anyone advise me how often the filters/sponges/media are meant to be changed on these filters and which ones.... thanks

I only do mine when the flow is starting to be effected, prolly only every 6-9 month's in my case