Aquarium Setup & Maintenance Archive

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.

I took the day of work today to heal an eye infection so I had some extra time on my hands and decided to get the water changed in my 29 and 45 gallon tanks and also to clean my main filter in my 125 gallon turtle tank.

The water changes were easy as usual but I noticed that my 45 gallon tank had a hint of green water while draining so I suspect an algae bloom in that tank. I also noticed that the glass had traces of algae on it so I cleaned it with scratch pad. One of the bulbs that I have in my T5 light is meant for plant growth so I might pull that out and see if that helps curb the algae growth.

The 29 Gallon tank was really easy to clean and while cleaning it I was wondering if maybe in the next little while I should get another crayfish. If I do get another crayfish I think I will get a rainbow one like before.

The main XP4 turtle filter cleaning was needed as the inside of it was really dirty but that’s expected as it wasn’t cleaned since October 24, 2008. Now this is very long for a filter not to be cleaned but as there are 2 filters hooked up to the turtle tank and I did change the water in the mean time it’s still not that bad. But I will try to keep the maintenance of the filters and water changes more regular to keep my pets happy.

I finally got around to cleaning both my XP3 filters for the 29 and the 45 gallon tanks. The 45 gallon XP3 filter was changed not to long ago but the 29 gallon has been running since October which is way too long. With this years winter being so snowy I just stayed home and played World of Warcraft which made me very lazy when it came to my filter maintenance and water changes. I will create a schedule for the filter cleaning and water changes and try to keep on top of this from now on. It only took about 30 mins to clean each filter which was way faster then I remember as I haven’t done it for a while.