# How to clean Hamburg Mattenfilter in an established shrimp tank?



## zachsta18 (Apr 11, 2014)

I haven't done it before, but feel as though there must be some other way to do this without pulling it out and getting everything all messy...

Do you have a gravel vacuum? If so, have you tried putting it right up against the sponge to suck up whatever is there?

Good luck with however you clean it!


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## FlyingShawn (Mar 4, 2011)

zachsta18 said:


> Do you have a gravel vacuum? If so, have you tried putting it right up against the sponge to suck up whatever is there?


That's one of the ideas that I've considered, but I don't think my little hose works up enough suction to make much of a difference on a 2" thick sponge.


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

There is no easy way to clean an HMF, but as zach suggested you can try a gravel vacuum across the front.

really the best way I would suggest is to remove most of the water into another bucket. this will allow you to get the sponge out without sloshing around all the water it use to hold, because you've drained out most of the water already. your shrimp will be fine for a few while you clean the HMF and slowly add the water back in. just dont clean out all the bacteria. you might cause a mini cycle

what substrate are you using?


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## FlyingShawn (Mar 4, 2011)

bostoneric said:


> There is no easy way to clean an HMF, but as zach suggested you can try a gravel vacuum across the front.
> 
> really the best way I would suggest is to remove most of the water into another bucket. this will allow you to get the sponge out without sloshing around all the water it use to hold, because you've drained out most of the water already. your shrimp will be fine for a few while you clean the HMF and slowly add the water back in. just dont clean out all the bacteria. you might cause a mini cycle
> 
> what substrate are you using?


Good idea about draining most of the water out of the tank! I think this will be Plan A for now (I'm hoping to work on it tomorrow or Wednesday).

I'm not too worried about a mini-cycle since I'll just be squeezing out the mulm in tank water like I do with any other sponge filter. The shrimp population is pretty low at the moment, so the bacteria in the rest of the tank should be more than sufficient.

This tank was originally designed to be a planted, but still easy-to-teardown-and-nuke quarantine setup, so the substrate is a Pyrex tray filled with dirt and flourite, surrounded by glass pebbles.


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## midlife_hobbyist (Jul 4, 2012)

Did you do a corner HMF? Or it sounds like full piece across the width of the tank.

There's a guy in one of my FB groups from Norway. He uses the corner HMF and when he installs it, he cuts two pieces- one about 2inches for the bottom piece and another from there up to the top which he takes out and cleans (he leaves the bottom piece by the substrate in the tank when cleaning. I pinged him asking how he removes w/o a mess.


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

I've mostly been ignoring my HMFs lately. I picked up a brush attachment for a shop vac that fits pretty nicely on a siphon hose, and used that a couple times to scrub/vacuum the surface of the mattenfilter, but I haven't used it enough to notice whether it really makes much of a difference or not.

Anyways, as to removing them, when I set up the tank, I put a thin piece of flexible plastic across the bottom at about the height I expected the substrate to be, right in front of the the HMF. I haven't tried yet, but I'm fairly certain that will let me pull the foam out without disturbing the substrate (as well as keep the substrate from gunking up the foam).

For your situation, I think mostly draining the tank, and then just slowly lifting it up above the water line would probably work. And if it doesn't just do a couple water changes to try and get reduce the amount of junk in the water.


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## zachsta18 (Apr 11, 2014)

I mean, if you're set on taking it out... I'd probably put the shrimp in one of those hang-on breeder boxes, run it and make sure all the shrimp are out. Then I'd put in a powerhead with a sponge on the intake in the tank while you pull the HMF out. The powerhead w/ sponge intake will catch any debris that's floating around the tank. Clean the filter, put it back and let the sponge filter run overnight with the shrimp still in the breeder box. Transfer the shrimp back into the tank the next day. 

That's being a bit picky, but it's just a potential thought. It's a bit of work, but it shouldn't be too bad for just a 10 gallon.


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