How often do you clean your Pre-filter?

[jonahshark]

Be honest. For those of you with pre-filters on your return pumps. How often do you clean them?

I ask because I just cleaned mine for the first time in too long and am amazed at the performance improvement.

J

 

[smellyfish]

Usually every month

 

[Vincerama2]

clean?

V

 

[jonahshark]

Right V, that's where I was. I just was amazed at how long it took to get all of the gunk out.

J

 

[raddogz]

When I used one on a skimmer every other week. I stopped using them because it took forever to clean the sponge out.

 

[Ti]

Straight pipe 4 me

 

[Kinetic]

i dno't have a prefilter on my pump =/

 

[jonahshark]

How do you get around it? I'd like to do something like that, but can't imagine not ending up with something stuck in my scwd or my spraybar.

 

[Kinetic]

ah, I don't use a SCWD or a spray bar =/

I've never had an animal or thing stuck in the pump, usually anything that flows through it will get chopped up, and anything hard enough / big enough wouldn't get past the notched surface overflow, a couple baffles, and then down into the intake of the return.

 

[Vincerama2]

Try using a screen, rather than a sponge.

My skimmer pump has a sponge, but my return pump (A via-aqua) has a slotted housing thing, so it's like a screen.

I sort of want pods and stuff to flow from my fuge/sump into my main tank.

V

 

[jonahshark]

I'll take a look. This is a Mag-Drive so the inlet is huge. I don't think the pre-filter is affecting pod movement, they're all over all 3 tanks of my system.

J