Hi I've had a 330l coldwater tank up and running for about 8 months. I have an external filter (Eheim Pro 3e 2078). I've never cleaned the filter yet, and according to the service button it won't need cleaning for another 6 months! Would this be right? I've never used an external filter before and had problems with cloudy/green water which has finally gone crystal clear (praise the lord!) I don't want to mess about with the filter unnecessarily for fear of messing up the water again but I also don't want to knacker it by not servicing it!

Every 6 months I would take apart, using tank water, give the sponges a squeeze to get rid of chunks of stuff. And put back in. I am sure some one more knowledgable will know more. My tank has been running a year(filter is 2nd hand and came wet, and not replaced any media yet)

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Ok thanks for that. I suppose everyone has their own schedule for cleaning depending on stocking levels, feeding etc. Some people do it every month but I've heard of folks doing it once a year!

Ok I got round to doing it yesterday. I only cleaned the pre-filter and it wasn't as mucky as I expected. The rest of the media was reasonably clean too so I've left it alone. I checked and cleaned the impeller, again this was hardly dirty at all! I'm going to wait longer next time as the filter is a nightmare to prime and get going again!

All that needs cleaning really is the part of the filter that builds up debris. The rest is just an area for the good bacteria to grow so once in a while is fine as long as debris is not clogging your filter.