I've got an aquaforte Midi Sieve on my grow on tank and noticed that bio film kept building up on it. Although, for some reason, Aquaforte decided to design it so that it is really difficult to remove the screen from the filter. This meant keeping the screen clear of bio film has been a real pain.

Anyway, this resulted in the water not dropping through the sieve as it should do and pooling up at the bottom. This also meant the muck was also building up on the bottom of the screen rather than on the face of the screen.

I've since started using a nail brush dipped in a small amount of drum cleaner - about 10 - 20mls is all I need, as it goes a long way. And give it a quick scrub - both up and down the screen and across the screen, each time I do a water change.

I have to say the screen is now working and looking like new and I wish I'd started doing this much earlier, rather than keep on adjusting the pump to different flows.

Having done this as part of my routine, I can highly recommend others to incorporate this into their filter maintenance routine too.

It is such a quick job - you can even keep the water running whilst you do it, although I prefer to leave it off to allow the cleaner to sit on the mesh for 15 mins to work it's magic, before turning it back on.

But it really does keep the sieve filter operating like new. It also means the sieve can handle higher flow rates better too (every time I kept turning my pump up before, the sieve couldn't keep up with the flow as it was so blocked).

I also occasionally do this with the mesh on my drum filter too. But I have to be much more careful with that to avoid tearing the mesh.


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