NC - canister maintenance?

[Gerryd]

Hi all,

So, at some point I in the near future, I will have to clean my nice new NC 533 cartridge. I purchased a spare so can have time to clean optimally and do a quick swapout

Question is what is the best way to do this?

I am thinking a light chlorine soak? With heavy rinsing after?

Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[JDowns]

I"m in the process of experimenting myself with this.

I added two cups of bleach to a five gallon bucket with enough water added to cover the filter. Pre-rinsed the cartridge and added to the bucket.

24 hrs later was visibily cleaner. Rinsed with a spray nozzel from the hose and put back in the bucket.

Today, about 36 hours, much cleaner after another rinsing.

I'm letting it soak for one more day to see if it can get any cleaner.

I plan on soaking for 24 hrs in dechlor then let it sit and dry until the next time to change.

I think a 1:4 bleach solution would be better though. The cartridges are polyester so a stronger bleach solution should be okay. I guess one could call Inland Seas to get their recommendations. Odd that its not part of the instructions or listed anywhere on their site though. But I don't mind a longer soaking since you do have a few weeks in between cleanings.

 

[Gerryd]

I like your plan and was thinking of something very similar.......I think the rinsing is important to remove as much of the clogging as possible.

Yes, I agree it is nice that with the spare, we have 2-3 weeks to get it clean.

I wonder if the pressure with a cleansed cartridge will be any less than the new ones?

I guess the next obvious question for me is how long do they last? Should we just replace a cartride every N time period (6 or 9 months?) or Y washings?

Most likely is that you install it freshly cleansed and your psi is through the roof! That is your signal to replace!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[JDowns]

Well after some research.

I think we would be better off using a Spa Filter Cleaner rather than bleach.

 

[Tom Barr]

The pool stores sell strong chlorine to clean things.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[JDowns]

I ended up soaking in a chlorine solution and it got the filter fairly clean. Starting psi was the same as when the filter was new.

Yesterday was my two week maintenance so I decided to try a pool filter cleaner (Bio-Dex). Within two hours the filter was brand new.

The salesperson recommended 4oz. to 5 gallons of water. Then thouroughly rinse. Then soak overnight 1/4 cup baking soda to 5 gallons water to neutralize any left over acids. Then thoroughly rinse again and let dry.

The Zeo Filter cleaner also does an amazing job at cleaning Zeolite to brand new.

 

[Gerryd]

Jdowns,

Thanks for the info! So the pool cleaner worked well, eh?

Just swapped mine so is now ready for cleaning, so your post is well timed!

BTW, where is the new thread re: your plumbing swap, details, etc?

 

[JDowns]

I'll get some photo's up this week.

Camera is on loan ATM. I just need to go pick it up. Been hectic with work/time last few weeks.

Well its so clean the LFS would take it back and never think it was used.

 

[JDowns]

I borrowed a few dirty filters to test a few things. Wasn't to hard to convince a free cleaning .

4oz came out as a minimum to get the filter in new condition with the filter cleaner.

Back to chlorine as per Tom's reply. If you use enough chlorine (as I obviously did not) you can achieve the same results (sparkling clean filter). A quarter gallon did the job overnight, and a half gallon did the job in a couple hours. Chlorine used was standard pool chlorine, 10% Sodium Hypochlorite.

Now from what I've read is that an acid based cleaner is preferred due to mineral deposits building up that are not removed by chlorine soaking. But with that advice we are not discussing in the realm of salt water so maybe an occasional acid based cleaning is all that is needed, since our needs are primarily organic material removal.

It would cost less in the long run to use chlorine. And I would think we could reuse the cleaning solution for multiple cleanings. I'm storing the buckets with lids to see how long a mixture can be reused.

Just in case anyone thinks to kill two birds with one stone. Never mix an acid cleaner with chlorine.

 

[Gerryd]

Hey all,

I stopped by the local pool store and all they had was this product:

Tropi Clear TSP (Tri-sodium Phosphate).

Guy said it was good, but had no idea if it would be bad for the fish when I told him the application.

He was hesitant and said he would not be responsible lol

I looked up TSP on Wiki-pedia and no info on fishies. Still researching...........

Lots of warning labes on the bottle. It is a liquid form of TSP which I understand can also be a dry powder........

So, will not use as I am unsure and will look for the bio-dex or get the regular pool chlorine.

Anyone know if this product will work?

Thanks,

 

[JDowns]

I would just use the regular pool chorine. !/4 gallon overnight worked just fine for me. This is what I will use until I start to see a difference in startup psi. If/when that happens I'll use the acid cleaner to remove any mineral deposits.