Cleaning a biological filter

[goby2]

I have a whisper 60 power filter on my 55 gallon tank. The biological filters have been slowly clogging up since i set up the tank about six months ago. The bio filter is just a sponge placed after the filter mesh. Can I just wringe it out in a bucket of salt water and put it back in? Should I clean it at all? I also have a sump, skimmer, live rock, etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, clean it regularly in salt water. Like, weekly, or every other week. Your live rock should be sufficient for biological filtration. I would just use this filter for chemical media, and not worry about the rest.

 

[Ben1]

Use the whisper to run carbon if there is no place in you sump. Ditch it all together otherwise. You LR will provide all the biological filtration needed, and the skimmer will be all the nutrient removal you need, unless its junk. P04 removal should be done with iron based removers which could also be run in the whisper is there is no good spot in the sump. All the sponge is doing is catching detritus and creating nitrate, unless you clean in daily with fresh water to remove detritus and kill off the bacteria it isnt helpful.

HTH