How to clean old canister filter without losing any good bacteria?

[tipnatee]

I have a very good and very old 100 gallons uv canister filter that has been slowing down for quite sometime now, at first it was great cause I don't need to worry about blocking water pressure for my axie tank , but then it get far too slow it couldn't keep up with filtering water as fast as it should any longer do to slim build up . So I use the stress zyme to reduce the slime build up problem, but it doesn't seem to be any changing. I know that you can wash your media in the tank water and maybe can keep the good bacteria going, but this old filter had so much good bacteria I didn't want to lose any of it. Is there any other way I can losing the filter clog without having to open it up?

 

[Felixtacat]

Unfortunately, I don't think you can really get the filter clean without opening it. But I clean my canister pretty vigorously every month and the cycle has been fine. I just leave the biological media in tank water.