Cleaning my Fluval Canister Filter

"Commander Vimes" wrote in message
...
Hi there,

I have a small set up at home with a Fluval 2 Plus canister filter.
The instructions with regards to filter maintenance are unclear (or
I'm stupid) so I'm seeking advice here.

I did a 25% water change today and tried to clean the filter. I did
this by removing the sponge filters and rinsing them in the water I
had removed. My question is how hard should this rinsing be? My method
of rinsing basically removed just large debris such as plant leaves.
The filter medium was still brown in colour and has a fine brown
sludge in it. I am nervous about cleaning more vigarously as I do not
want to remove the bacteria which I believe live in the filter (or
have I grabbed totally the wrong end of the stcik here?).

Clean it as hard as you like. The bacteria that do the work are not visible
to the naked eye and (like most bacteria) almost impossible to remove. The
brown sludge, while harboring some bacteria, is really nothing more than
collected fish poop and leaving it in the filter just results in higher
nitrate levels in your tank.

Just make sure you always clean the filter materials in tank water, not tap
water as the chlorine and other disinfectants will kill the bacteria.


Graham.