CLEANING THE PUMP FILTER .... I thought I had an algae clog ...

[Bob Vento]

Ya'll,

Yesterday I noticed my water flow was slower than normal so I did some investigating and after some head scratching, discovered that the pump filter was very clogged with sediment and not algae.

Although there is algae growing around where the water enters the grow bed, and an algae film along the grow bed sides and on the sides of the fish tank ... the pipes remain mostly clean.

How often do you clean your pump filter? 

Is it better to remove the filter material and letting the
sediment circulate to the grow bed?

Would doing this harm the filter less pump and reduce its service life? 
Inquiring minds want to know ! 

Regards,
Bob

[George]

I use just the plastic screen that came on my pump and have never needed to clean it.  It pumps solids to the media beds.

[Jeremy K]

The plastic screen ? So you take the mesh out from behind the screen?

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I removed it because we want the solids making their way to the grow bed where our bacteria and worms can much on them.

[Bob Vento]

Ok ... so today I removed the filter that was in my pump and just left the plastic screen and replaced the pump cover.

That might explain why my plants were doing so poorly. SHEESH

Seems I should have read that someplace when I was doing my planning. Maybe I did and just did not recall it since there was so much to learn about aquaponics.

I hope by doing this my plants veggies will take off! 

Regards,
Bob

Jonathan Kadish said:

I removed it because we want the solids making their way to the grow bed where our bacteria and worms can much on them.

[George]

Yes.  Fish solids aren't very solid and should not harm your pump.  Anything that passes through the screen will go to the media beds.

Jeremy K said:

The plastic screen ? So you take the mesh out from behind the screen?

[Deborah Susan Berry]

I too have not seen this anywhere. This explains a lot. This is need to know information. Thank you George!

[TCLynx]

I think most places I've seen it written, it was stated something like "take the sponge filter out of the pump"