The BEST way to clean "submerged" dirty aquarium equipment?

[Mike from TN]

I voted weekly ( sometimes every OTHER week ).
Sorry but I have major OCD when it comes to that kind of stuff.
All of my cords coming out of the tank are bundled into a harness, similar to a cars wiring harness. There is enough slack to remove each component from the tank without taking apart the harness. I use a one gallon bucket filled with RO/DI and just clean them in the bucket next to the tank With various brushes after disassembling them.
Items cleaned weekly:
1. Return pump
2. Wavemaker heads (2)
3. Heater gets wiped down and heater chamber gets vacuumed out
4. UV lamp lens gets cleaned
5. Random flow head gets taken apart (Spin Stream) and cleaned.
6. InTank basket gets pulled and completely cleaned and chamber vacuumed out
7. Lens on the Black Box gets wiped down 2X/week

Like I said, VERY O.C.D.

 

[dropoff729]

I clean mine system pumps and all Quarterly. Sometimes more depending. And do a once a year heavy heavy clean on the system

 

[NigelRichardson]

I don't have an answer yet (Tank has only been running 5 months), but I am going to use this thread an excuse to pose a question I've always wanted to know the answer to...

Everyone talks about "Citric acid baths" for getting powerbeads clean.

What concentration / ratio of Citric Acid:Water should I be using?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Buckster]

I don't have an answer yet (Tank has only been running 5 months), but I am going to use this thread an excuse to pose a question I've always wanted to know the answer to...

Everyone talks about "Citric acid baths" for getting powerbeads clean.

What concentration / ratio of Citric Acid:Water should I be using?

Thanks in advance!

I Don't know the answer but am asking the same question as NigelRichardson! I clean quarterly

 

[Jax15]

Voted other because different schedules. Powerheads probably quarterly. Skimmer and return pump definitely annually or less even. Prob should clean them more, but it's a lot harder to get done...

Citric acid all the way. Corraline coats my tank in days, it's wild.

 

[Eagle.]

I voted weekly ( sometimes every OTHER week ).
Sorry but I have major OCD when it comes to that kind of stuff.
All of my cords coming out of the tank are bundled into a harness, similar to a cars wiring harness. There is enough slack to remove each component from the tank without taking apart the harness. I use a one gallon bucket filled with RO/DI and just clean them in the bucket next to the tank With various brushes after disassembling them.
Items cleaned weekly:
1. Return pump
2. Wavemaker heads (2)
3. Heater gets wiped down and heater chamber gets vacuumed out
4. UV lamp lens gets cleaned
5. Random flow head gets taken apart (Spin Stream) and cleaned.
6. InTank basket gets pulled and completely cleaned and chamber vacuumed out
7. Lens on the Black Box gets wiped down 2X/week

Like I said, VERY O.C.D.

Is there a link where I can purchase some of that free time you have?

 

[austibella]

I use vinegar and water. I use Tooth brushes, Q- tips and my favorite is a kitchen water glass brush.i clean wave pumps every week, protein skimmer cup gets empty and washed every day and soaked in vinegar and water every few months as needed
.reactors every month cleaned and add new carbon and phosphate . Open and clean any build up on octopus bio churn I change my 2 filter socks every other day..

 

[paul barker]

ones a month I pick one thing and clean it

 

[richarddeweerd]

Every six months, and I'm will try using citric acid next time, that is much better for the cables.

I do it together with a water change. I do the water change first and I keep 2 buckets of the old water to rinse the equipment after cleaning.

 

[mkwarner77]

vinegar for 1/2 hr, I alternate every other month between 2 pumps and heaters, return pump annually, running in a bucket of vinegar and water for an hr.

 

[DxMarinefish]

I read somewhere that vinegar can "crack" some plastic/rubber parts of equipment, so I use Citric Acid now.
I found this also means I can soak for much less time than with vinegar.

 

[Simmo7671]

How much citric acid do you use in a bucket with your powerheads?

 

[DxMarinefish]

How much citric acid do you use in a bucket with your powerheads?

After a trial and error, I have settled to 50grams per 1 litre of water if i clean every 3 months. I soak for 30-40 mins and just brush off with a large toothbrush.

 

[fishybizzness]

From alot of the responses in this thread, alot of reefers are either retired or single. Just an observation.

 

[NY_Sea]

i have always used vinegar and warm water to clean and scrub pumps. It works great and would let sit in there for 5-6 hours. Then a good scrubbing and good as new

I recently tried the Millard citric acid. Worked pretty well but i noticed a strange fuzzy looking growth on my overflow box and the mp40s I cleaned. Almost like a bacteria algae bloom. Any ideas why? I’ll prob go back to just vinegar.

 

[ca1ore]

I'm pretty lazy about cleaning stuff. I run flow meters on my various sump feed pumps, so when flow falls I clean them out. Mostly vortech on the display. I keep a couple of spare wetsides and a bunch of spare nozzles. I clean the operating wetsides every couple of months. Usually just requires a quick scrub. I swap in a new nozzle. I do not use vinegar on the wetside magnets but I do use it on the nozzles - that's where most of the buildup occurs anyhow.

 

[Alex Cataldo]

Usually every 2-3 weeks. For the skimmer I will normally clean every few months since the buildup isn’t that bad. I soak the power heads in citric acid.

 

[DxMarinefish]

You could create a powerfilter if you have a pump in there.
this will passively remove the stuff, not all but enough.
This way there is no stirring of the guck causing possible spikes.

 

[coral408]

I don’t set a regular standard time to clean my submerged equipments! I clean only as built up debris slowing down the pumps, sometimes weeks or months!
One time I used vinegar to soak one of MP40 pumps and got a base cracked! not sure why!?
since then I clean the pumps wlth hot water rinse and using dental brush and industrial tube brush. So far, it works for me!

 

[jmichaelh7]

Citric acid cleans coralline algae off my powerheads easily