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Hi guys,
I dont know whether this has been asked before but I wanted to know how often do you clean your filters? Also what kind of filters do you run.
For starters I'm running two canisters which I was cleaning alternately every week. Just wondering if its messing with my bio filtration.

I uses following types of filters:

1. Canister filters (Cleaning frequency- 3-4 months)
2. Hang on Back filter (Cleaning frequency - once a month)
3. Power filters (Cleaning frequency - Every week)

I have an Eheim 2213 lying unused, i used to clean it once in 2 months or so when it was operational, one half of the sponges only.

i have Ejet Sponge Filters, shaped like upright cylinders, very efficient, good enough for even discus, that i clean only when the speed of the bubbles coming out from the plastic chimney is dramatically reduced. This means anywehre from 2 to 4 months!

Cleaning filters to often ruins their biological filtration capacity. They should be cleaned after careful examination of the sponge (or whtever meadia you are using). If the dirt begings to block the passage of water throught it, it is time to clean the filter PARTIALLY. Cleaning it too well kills the nitrifying bacteria and they are the main reason a filter works biologically.

When i clean any filter, the water i rinse out is given to potted plants. It is rich in nitrogen, phosphate (NPK) etc. and many micronutrients, which are the same compounds that are found in commerical soil fertilizers.

Cleaning intervals of filter completely depends on the bio-load of the tank. I run 2 canisters (Eheim 2217 and AquaOne 1000) on 5ft tank and clean once in 3 months with very less bio-load, I use the same aquarium water while draining to clean the sponges.

However I remember that during the past when I was obsessed with goldfish I used to clean the filter every week

I don't use filters.
So I am excused.

I have been using power filter so cleaning them every 7 to 10 days

I second Romi that if you clean your filter too well you might end up forcing the tank to cycle again. This is especially true with high efficiency filters. When you have a fantastic filter turning over upwards of 4 or 5 times the tank volume then all the nitrogen excreted by your fish goes to the bacteria in the filter. With little food, there are much fewer bacteria in the tank itself, although they still number in billions. In this situation if you clean your filter too well you throw out most of these bacteria and your stable nitrogen cycle goes down the sink. However not all is lost for the bacteria seed the filter in short course and since they double every few hours you rapidly get back your biological filtration.

When I use internal/power filters I clean them every month or two. Just a rinse in aged water to get rid of some of the gunk. I believe the point ruchit has made is important, filters are best not cleaned with chlorinated, read tap, water.

I am using
1: Eheim 2217 - Clean it every 5 months (no issues so far with that frequency)
2. Resun external canister filter - clean after every 4 months (due to less bio load)
3. Hang ons - Once in a month whenever i get time.

After keeping the tanks for a while you'll understand when cleaning is required. Basically it doesn't have any fix formula or specific time many other factors as discussed above are responsible for it.

Happy cleaning

I take flow from the filter as an indicator for filter cleaning. In general when it reaches half of the initial flow( this is not parametric rather experience based)

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I clean cansiter in 2 months