how often do you clean your filters?
i clean my cannister filter once a month, my ac500 and sponge filter every 2 weeks, and my sump every 3 weeks(i rinse my mechanical filter pad every couple of days)

I clean hob filters around every other week, depending on the tank. Canisters go every other month, to every 6 months, but they are on tanks with multiple filters, and set up mostly for bio filtration. Sponge filters get cleaned every week or every other week, depending on the tank.

I've got a trick to cleaning sponge filters without polluting the tank when you pull them out. Take a used, clean container, large enough to hold the entire foam part of the filter. Lift the filter enough to get it in the submerged container, I use old margerine buckets. Pull it out with the water.

This keeps the open cell foam from dumping all the gunk in it when the water rushes out as it comes out of the tank.

hey that's a pretty cool trick to get the sponge out of the tank, thanks for sharing tolak.:tup: