Canister Filter Tubing?

[srusso]

Another quick question, do you guys some how clean your tubes to your canister filters? How often? And with what?

[Eddie]

Every couple months.

http://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Edge-H.../dp/B002S4QFGE

[rickztahone]

i never do and the hoses always seem to clean themselves after they have turned brownish.

[Jhhnn]

I haven't bothered. Every once in a great while, the biofilm in the return tube comes loose, ends up in the aquarium on a filter restart. I siphon it up. I suppose it could clog spraybars, but I don't use 'em...

[srusso]

yeah that is what I was thinking...Is that white stuff that comes out ok?

[tcyiu]

Somehow the crud in my tubes lower the water flow.

So when I need to, I use a wad of polyester fiber, and push it through the tubing with some drip irrigation tubing. i.e. the semi rigid black tubing.

This stuff is great because it doesn't compress when you use it to push on something. It is flexible and follows the curve of the filter tubing. And I have some on hand. Not really very cheap when you have to buy 50ft of it. But like I said, if you have it handy, it's dirt cheap.

Tim

[KEWX]

I clean them every couple months. I use a 7 foot piece of electric wire (14/2) with about 5 inches of stripped wire on the end which I attach to a tube brush. I run the wire and brush back and forth several times, pull it out and rinse. The results are clean tubes!

[ValorG]

Ya I dont touch my tubing at all. Never had probs, going on years now.

[Jhhnn]

yeah that is what I was thinking...Is that white stuff that comes out ok?

Apparently so- some of my discus eat it with no ill effects...

One of my friends has a community tank, and his small fish devour the stuff when it gets loose in the aquarium.

It's the same menagerie of microscopic life growing in the filter... yummy stuff, apparently...