hey guys welcome back to the channel I'm Kev from Kaveman Aquatics today we're
going to be talking about how to clean your canister filters the proper way
let's go in today's video we're going to talk about my order of operations of how
to clean a canister filter if you do it a different way make sure to leave me a
comment and we can talk about it if you use a different type of media or stack
your media in a different order let me know we'll discuss it below alright guys
so we've removed our canister from the tank and we've got our setup here with
our towel in our bucket this setup is for instructional purposes so I can show
you guys exactly how I clean my canister our first step is going to be removing
the water from the canister the reason why we want to use the water from inside
the canister is that this tank water is what we're gonna use to clean our
sponges in our bio media if you use tap water the chlorine and your tap water is
going to kill off your beneficial bacteria we want to preserve this as
much as possible that's why we're gonna use tank water and the best place to get
the tank water from inside your canister I'll speed this part up so we get to the
goodies inside if you notice how clear and clean this water is coming out of
your canister keep that in mind and take note of what this water looks like when
we're done
so I popped the top took the cover off the canister gave that a quick little
rinse now I'm removing the sponges I'll give them a good squeeze and a good
rinse that's really all you need these will come out pretty clean you'll start
to notice with everything that you clean with this tank water the tank water will
get a little dirty
now I'm removing the medium sponges and I'm basically gonna do the same process
give them a good squeeze a good little rubdown they'll be good to go
I'll dip this tray into the tank water just to give it a good rinse to get
anything that stuck on it off don't have to spend so much time cleaning this out
if you notice the very first thing in the top of my media trays is a bag of
pure Asian this bag of purging will last you a very long time it can be reused it
can be recharged at this point this has a really brownish color it most likely
is already used up and can't be reused I could go through the process of
recharging it but I have a brand new one on standby I'll toss it in the bucket
leave it there for a while we'll see what it looks like when we're done
now these media trays holds all the bio media in the canister this top tray has
matrix bio media in it all I'm gonna do is give this a couple of dips in the
water not too much scrubbing not too much moving around you don't really want
to mess with this too much this is where most of your beneficial bacteria lives
so I'm just gonna give it a couple of dunks in the in the water and that's
about it this second tray has a mix of matrix bio media along with flooville
ceramic rings I'm going to do the same process with this tray
give it a couple of dunks good to go you do not ever have to replace your bio
media your bio media is where your beneficial bacteria live and you want to
preserve them for as long as possible do not replace your bio media
my next tray has polyfill polyfill is a very fine piece of mechanical filtration
this stuff is dirt cheap and it helps tremendously and give you crystal-clear
looking water if you want some tips on how to get crystal-clear looking water
check this video out this polyfill because it's so cheap and
because once it gets dirty it gets all clumped up really hard to clean I'm just
gonna toss this in the trash and replace it with some new polyfill no problem
give the tray a few dunks just to get the excess trash out of there
the last tray in the bottom is gonna hold your polishing pad as well as your
course pad these polishing pads can get cleaned after a couple of uses but
eventually you will need to replace these two I'm giving it a good attempt
at trying to clean them but as you can see they're kind of beat-up they still
look a little bit dirty and worn out so I'm most likely gonna throw them a trash
can just replace them with new ones
so the last thing the very bottom of your trays is going to be a coarse
sponge this Blunt is definitely can be cleaned and rinsed out doesn't need
replacement too often I'm going to do the same process as before with the
sponges just give them a good squeeze rub them down a little bit get on it to
try this off of them
now that bag of pure gin that we left in the bucket to rinse off for a while you
see it's still a little bit brownish once the purging gets this medium to
darkest color brown it's no good anymore you either got to
recharge it or replace it I'm gonna go ahead and replace it
make sure your trays are clean and free of debris just by giving them a few
dunks in the water
the cover of your canister filter houses your motor and your impeller during
every canister cleaning you should remove your impeller and give that a
good scrub down
now all you have left is an empty bucket this bucket is okay to take it over to a
tap water source and just rinse it out bring it back clean now putting
everything back together we're gonna go into reverse order our bottom tray is
gonna hold our course black sponges and right on top of your poor sponges goes
your polishing pad now while filming this video I ran out of polishing pad
I'm gonna continue the process just for instructional purposes these are the
polishing pads that you need these are the flooville polishing pads very cheap
my next tray is where I keep my polyfill and yeah I ran out of that too but here
it is nine bucks for the huge bag very worth it all you got to do take a
handful of this stuff rip it out stuff this into your tray make sure those are
protrude over the top good to go next goes your media trays stack them back in
the same order put all your media baskets back into
your canister and now we're gonna put our sponges back in place
yes your hair crazy should point outwards
this is my new bag of Puritan I'm gonna open it up and put it right on top of
the trade this is gonna be the last thing that your water hits before
exiting your canister the order of media in your canister should always be
mechanical biological and then lastly chemical here's a good comparison of
what new puritan versus used period looks like once your Kuragin gets this
brownish color you either need to recharge it by following the
instructions on your Puritan label or toss it and put a new one in up to you
now I'll reassemble the impeller components put them back where they
belong
make sure your impeller cap gives a good snap when you're installing it just to
ensure correct placement put the motor back onto the base of your canister snap
it together and we're all set
alright guys thanks for watching if you've got any good information off
this video make sure to hit that like button consider subscribing and stay
tuned for the next one