usually filters are cleaned once a week a couple days after a water change.
if filters are gunked up every week, then you may be feeding too much food at once
(GF have no stomach, so feed em a lot and it is in and out of their intestines mostly
undigested. normally they "nibble" all day long.
if you are using cheap flake food it has so much indigestible carbohydrates in it
that it is in and out of the fish and then fouls the water, the gravel and the
filter.
high nitrates are a problem with the gravel not really getting cleaned well. you
need to move the fish to a 5 gallon bucket of water, drop in an airstone (must use
airstone!) and clean the gravel completely. it is loaded with organics.
Ingrid

"Kodiak" wrote:
What is the recommended interval for cleaning out the filter
(rinse with dechloribated or used aquarium water of course)
for a;
33gal tank
Aquaclear 300
4 goldfish about 1-2" each?

I siphoned the gravel 4 times this week, did a 30% water change each time,
my nitrates wont go down, they are very high 110mg/L. Do high levels
cause fish to swim radically? Fish seem normal but when i walk by the tank
The bigger one especially seems to go nuts, he can dart from one side of the
tank to the other
so fast he smashes into the glass basically goes nuts for a few second and
then calms down.
Is this a sign of Nitrate poisoning? How bad is it? Nitrate by itself I
thought was generally harmless.

I cleaned the filter media tonight, I usually do it once a month, is this
too long an interval?

Thank you and best regards... Kodiak




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