# Eheim Classic Cannister Cleaning



## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Whats the best way to clean a canister filter and keep all the biological filtration intact? I was thinking of just dumping the media into a bucket and rinsing in tank water. Anyone want to share their experiences?

TIA


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## Corigan (Mar 15, 2004)

Here is what I do, and I find this is great advice.

http://www.wheelpost.com/EheimClassic.html

Matt


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## Hanzo (Mar 9, 2004)

I use a hose to change water in my tank, and when the water is running true the hose I use this to rinse the pump. Usually works great


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

I take it outside.
Take the lid off and clean it very carefully separately.
I put a hose onto the top and let the water pour out the lower exit nozzle hose until the water runs clear (about 10 minutes).
Bingo...done.
The bacteria should reestablish itself in a few weeks. Meanwhile the plants have plenty of bacteria on them to take over the bio filtration work.

Steve


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## AV8TOR (Mar 28, 2004)

Corigan said:


> Here is what I do, and I find this is great advice.
> 
> http://www.wheelpost.com/EheimClassic.html
> 
> Matt


That article is great and I started using her method of back washing. Works fantastic and nice and simple. If you are concerned about keeping the biological filter intact backwash with a bucket of water that has been treated with Prime.


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I never even thought of running the water through backwards....good thing Ive got you guys hanging around here!


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Steve you can backflush the classic series without using a hose and killing your bacteria, there's no need to do all that. Just unplug the inlet hose and let the water syphon out of the tank through the filter, this used to actually be well described in the Eheim instruction manuals back in the day. For yearly cleanup, I tip the various media into a bucket of tank water, the bio media gets a little swirl but nothing more, everything else I rinse in tap water. Never lost the cycle doing it this way.

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Giancarlo,

Great idea! Thanks.

Steve


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Yes that sounds like the best idea yet! Makes it very easy for a weekly clean of the filter without messing with the biological filtration.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Weekly? Keeping an aligator in there? :lol: 

Just kidding, I probably haven't opened my canisters in 6-7 months now but am using pre-filters so I'm sure that helps a lot.

That backwashing trick used to be so popular and well documented, now it's forgotten about and most newer canisters can't do it out of the box because both valves disconnect together. That's one of the biggest reasons I'm so loyal to the classic series, I love the valves being separate and replaceble with off the shelf PVC valves when time come to replace them.

Giancarlo Podio


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Well, I figure if im going to be draining water weekly why not just drain it through the filter and flush it too?


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Can't argue with that! The flow is kind of slow though...

Giancarlo Podio


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

That gives me time to fill up my water jugs and lug them in ;-)


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

oohh... the stone age aquarist :wink: 

Just kidding, brings back many memories of running buckets up and down my staircase :lol: 

Actually I just started doing that again since I'm using RO/DI :roll: But will find a way to use my phython for that too eventually....

Giancarlo Podio


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

I've got a big trash can I plan on using with a submersible pump as soon as I can afford one  That will make it easy to mix in my r/o and tap from the hose, then pump it into the tank.


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