I cleaned my main turtle filter today the Rena XP4 but it was cleaner then I thought. The only reason that I can see it being so clean was that I found a kink in the hose going into the filter, so it wasn’t sucking as much water as it was suppose to so it was filtering a lot less. So once I cleaned it, I returned it to it’s location under the aquarium and made sure the hoses were not kinked anymore.
Here are the steps that I took to cleaning my filter
Step 1 - I rinsed out a new BioZorb chemical pouch under cold water for 2-3 minutes till it was almost clean water running through it.
Step 2 - I disconnected the filter from power and used the quick release handle to remove the filter from under the aquarium and put it into my sink
Step 3 - I opened the filter, put the motor head in the sink and took out all the media baskets into a pail
Step 4 - I drained all the old water and cleaned the inside of the filter canister with a scotch pad sponge then rinsed it.
Step 5 - I cleaned the bottom basket and foam inserts one by one
Step 6 - I cleaned the other 2 baskets with Bio Rings by gently running cold water over them and shaking the basket
Step 7 - I cleaned the top basket and discarded the old BioZorb pouch and the old floss pad
Step 8 - I inserted the new rinsed BioZorb pouch and floss pad into the top basket
Step 9 - Once all the baskets were clean I inserted them into the canister filter housing and cleaned the motor
Step 10 - I made sure all the baskets were all aligned and added water to the filter, once the water was at the top I quickly closed the motor on to the canister
Step 11 - I closed all the latches on the motor and made sure it was nice and tight
Step 12 - I took a towel and wiped any excess water of the filter sides and hooked the filter back on
Step 13 -I plugged the filter back on and WAALAA its back to filtering my aquarium
Step 14 - I then cleaned up and I was done so spent I 10 minutes enjoying your turtles and fish
Below is a picture of the XP4 filter and how the water circulates through the canister.
