Cleaning frequency of Eheim 2028

[wasabi8888]

Hi all

With a medium to heavy bio-load 2 feet tank, what is the recommended maintenance schedule for the Eheim 2028? Please help in the following:

1. White filter wool - how often do you change it?
2. Blue coarse filter wool - how often do you WASH or CHANGE it?
3. Biological filter eg Eheim substrate pro and Biohome plus - How often is this washed with tank water?
4. Do you throw away the water in the cannister when you change the filter wool and scrub the cannister? - usually when I change the filter wool, I keep the existing water in there and do not bother to pour it away. Is this normal?


Thanks in advance

[bossteck]

Hi Jeffrey,

Is your tank planted? How often do you do water change for your tank?

My personal practice would be once every 3 months. I do 1-3 all at one go. Unhooking the filter just seemed too much work to be just for change of filter pads. This is for a non-planted tank, which I do 20-30% water change once every month.

I usually throw away the water in the filter before hooking it up again, no special reason for doing this except to avoid spilling when moving the canister from my toilet back to the tank area.

Cheers

[wasabi8888]

Hi all

Thanks Eric for the questions. Tank is NOT a planter tank. Inhabitants include plecos, apistogrammas and cardinal tetras. Amazonian Bio-topw with ADA Sarawak sand.

Because of the plecos, fish poo is rather prevalent. Any changes to your advice based on the above?

[benny]

For me, I would say between 3 to 6 month (depending on bioload) and like Eric, I would change all the pads at one go. I don't borther with the water in the caninster too.

Cheers,

[Freshman]

For pleco tank, I will suggest you to change the canister filter wool every 2-3months and have some sponge attached to the inlet tube.
Then during every WC, I will remove the sponge and wash it.

Cheers

[celticfish]

wasabi8888,

I change mine from 3 to 6 months.
But I have a pre-filter spong at the inlet.
However 3 months is a good time to do the first one.
You can than guage the build-up in your tank better.
The time to each maintenance can vary quite drastically from hobbyist to hobbyist.

[bossteck]

Because of the plecos, fish poo is rather prevalent. Any changes to your advice based on the above?

I think once every 3 months would probably be a good idea. You still need to do water changes in between.

[wasabi8888]

Hi all

3 months seem to me a good time based on all the feedback which is a bit shocking for me. For my other tank which is a 30X30X40 tank which has a Eheim 2211 and a Liberty 100, I change white filter wool once every 2 weeks. Not sure whether I can stretch to 3 months for the 2028.

Pertaiing to the prefilter sponge tied at the inlet, is this advisable if this is the only filter running? Will it affect the flow rate too much?

Lastly, Freshmen, when you mentioned cannister filter wool, do you mean the white one or the blue one?

[aquarius]

Your filter can easily last 6mths before you need to wash the filter. I wash my 2228 filter about once every 4mths - i have about 20 plecos in my 3ft tank.
When i wash the filter, i'll pour away the filter water, rinse the media with tank water and change the white sponge. As for the blue sponge which looks like a honey comb.... just wash/rinse with tank water.

[Freshman]

I have those sponge attached to both my canisters. Didn't really see any immediate significant drop in flow rate.

In my earlier post, I'm referring to white filter wool. Mine get too dirty too stained with fish shit that is simply beyond any hope of 'recover' from washing..
As for those blue ones, I just rinse it with tank water.

Another suggestion:
Place your canister inlet at a higher location.
Install another simple OHF setup. Place the OHF pump nearer to tank bottom where it can suck up all the pleco shit.