# How often do you clean your Eheim / Fluval?



## seandelevan (Sep 24, 2006)

Depends on the tank size and such. My Fx5 maybe 2-3 times a year. On my 75 I have a 306 and a 305. The 305 maybe every 3 months while my 306 has to be once a month due to terrible flow a month after cleaning it out. And I have yet to clean my 2213 I got 2 months a ago for my 44.


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## Jeff5614 (Dec 29, 2005)

I have a couple of Eheim Pro 3's and I replace the fine pad and rinse the coarse pad every other week. Tubing is cleaned approximately monthly and I rinse the biomedia every 2 months or so.


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## mitchfish9 (Apr 30, 2012)

I clean mine about every 4-6 weeks. I only have one tank so I can do it kind of often. The flow does sim a little bit better after the filter cleaning.

Fluval 206 btw


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

I haven't cleaned my 2213 in over a year... Oops?


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## Exie (Jan 23, 2012)

I clean my 206 once a month; rinse out the foam and ~1/4th of the biomax.


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## alipper (Nov 6, 2012)

mitchfish9 said:


> *I clean mine about every 4-6 weeks*. I only have one tank so I can do it kind of often. The flow does sim a little bit better after the filter cleaning.


Same.


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## zico_aqua (Dec 23, 2012)

+1 Jeff5614, same here but mines a 2213


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## le0p (Mar 28, 2012)

I have a 206 and I clean it when I notice a reduction in flow. Usually about 2-3 months. I removed the "polishing pad" that came with the filter cause it did nothing but get clogged and deteriorate. Now, the only thing that slows down the flow is the intake strainer getting clogged, and there's been no drop in water clarity.


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## Bubba Shrimp (May 7, 2012)

I have a 2213 and change the filter floss and carbon once a month and the coarse pad every few months. I have had it about 3 months I notice the tubing has build up in it. How do you clean the tubing? I have cleaning brushes but not that would fit all the way down the tubing. Anyone know a link to a cleaning snake?


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## bikinibottom (Nov 18, 2012)

Fluval 306 -- monthly while doing a water change. Rinse all of the media in a bucket of tank water. Clean off the impeller.


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## Jimmyblues (Dec 16, 2010)

*Re: Cleaning Your Canister Filter*



hedge_fund said:


> I just cleaned the top pad from my Eheim basket on the 2213. It's crazy how much the flow has increased. It's not like it was bad before but I just had to replant a bunch of plants since the flow uprooted a ton of cuttings.
> 
> The filter was brand new about 3 months ago. So is it safe to say that you need to clean it about every 3 months?


 
The amount of time that passes before you must clean your canister filter depends on the size of your aquarium and its bio load.

The filter being used on a well or overstocked aquarium is going to need to be cleaned more often than a filter that is being used on an under stocked aquarium.

Moreover, an oversized filter will allow for less frequent cleanings.


For example, I use a Fluval 305 on a Mr. Aqua 17 gallon aquarium. This filter is rated for up to a 70 gallon aquarium. However, the filter could probably be comfortably used on a 55 - 60 gallon aquarium that is lightly stocked before it becomes undersized; since most filter manufacturers are extremely optimistic with their ratings.

My Mr. Aqua 17 is home to about three dozen female guppies whose bio load is relatively light. So the filter is complete overkill and as such, only needs to be cleaned once a year.

Even then, when I open the filter the media is not nearly as dirty as this filter would be if it was being used to filter the same tank but with larger fish.

Overall, I have found that using an oversized filter makes good sense when you want to reduce the amount of maintenance that you have to do on an aquarium, simply because you have to clean the filter less often.

And this becomes especially true if you are maintaining several aquaria; especially if they are planted.


On an aside, for those who have been considering the purchase of a UV sterilizer, I have found that Cobalt Aquatic's DUO 500 and 1000 series internal filters are quite useful.

There's not much in the way of mechanical filtration with these filters, so I decided to just use them as power head/UV clarifiers. They work quite well this way, and you don't have to deal with cleaning them every two weeks or so when the filter media becomes saturated with detritus.

I use the term UV clarifiers because that is basically what inexpensive UV sterilizers are, since their bulbs are cheap and while very useful for polishing the water in your aquarium and killing off algae spores, not as useful as better quality bulbs for killing off larger parasites and protozoa.

A real UV sterilizer has a better quality bulb and ballast and costs a lot more. However, they tend to be overkill in fresh water aquariums, yet, are well worth the additional money when you have a large investment in salt water fish and corals. Or even a fresh water set up with a tank full of pricey Discus.

For polishing water though, an inexpensive UV clarifier will do an excellent job of keeping your water column looking crystal clear.


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## Fishumms (Apr 21, 2010)

I always worry about disturbing the bacteria or whatever in the filter so I have 2 on each of my tanks. I just clean one each month, then the next one the month after.


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## MChambers (May 26, 2009)

*Yup*



Jimmyblues said:


> The amount of time that passes before you must clean your canister filter depends on the size of your aquarium and its bio load.
> 
> The filter being used on a well or overstocked aquarium is going to need to be cleaned more often than a filter that is being used on an under stocked aquarium.
> 
> ...


All good points. The use of a prefilter will also reduce the need to clean the canister, but you'll have to clean the prefilter.


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## JennV420 (Feb 5, 2015)

I only take mine apart and rinse it about every 6 months. Everything is very stable, no algae issues at all and everyone is healthy and happy, fish and plants doing fantastic. I think as long as everything flowing and not plugged, leave it alone.

Bump: I run a fluval and a 350 penguin side filter on a 75.


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

jkan0228 said:


> I haven't cleaned my 2213 in over a year... Oops?


Hillarious.
I clean my 2211, 2213 and 2215 when about no water is coming out. Or recently in the case of my 2211 when I realized Oops, it's unplugged. Must have been like this for a couple of weeks. Oh well no problem, heavily planted.


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## someoldguy (Feb 26, 2014)

Eheim 2211,13,15 ... maybe every 6-9 months


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## majerah1 (Nov 6, 2010)

What is this cleaning you speak of? 

In all honestly it may be time for me to do ine. I think its been almost a year if not slightly over. In my defense the tank is a 40 breeder with an Eheim 2222 and has a total of three small fish and is planted.


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

I've always been in the habit of changing out the fine pad when I do a w/c. Of course, my tank is more fish-centric so there's more bioload/feeding going on. That said, it's gotten more thorough cleanings twice in recent months due to a pair of angels and their unfortunate use of the intake as a spawning site - I unplugged the filter, so just drained/rinsed everything off good, plus filled with tap water. Yeah; probably killed the biofilter. Fortunately, I have a collection of sponge filters cycling in there so it didn't seem to cause any issue.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

mitchfish9 said:


> I clean mine about every 4-6 weeks. I only have one tank so I can do it kind of often. The flow does sim a little bit better after the filter cleaning.
> 
> Fluval 206 btw


 
+one^
Two eheim 2217's and one Rena XP3 once a month.


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## Idrankwhat (Mar 20, 2013)

I don't have Eheim, but I clean my canister every 4/5 weeks or the algae starts showing up. :icon_twis


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

I go about once every 6 months. To be honest it's mostly the big foam block at the bottom and the felt at the top that get so gross. The actual media is never that dirty. Flow does increase immensely though when I do clean it


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## trapperwolves (Nov 26, 2011)

I don't have any Ehiems but I do have 5 Rena canisters running. 
I clean 1 every week which obviously translates to every 5 weeks a canister filter gets cleaned.


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