maxthedog123

I got my filters from a friend - they had been used for quite some time. The intake tubes have quite a bit of gunk in them. Should I clean them out or just let them grow bacteria?

atmmachine816

I would clean them out really well along with everything else and start clean. That way you won't have any mysterious disease and illnesses from his/her tank and just re-cycle.

COBettaCouple

I'd agree.. anything good in them is long dead and totally cleaning them would be the best.. clean it good with hot water.

griffin

ditto that - you're not sure what that stuff is in there. and if they weren't used for a while, the bacteria you're interested in is dead, so might as well start fresh

maxthedog123

They were being used right up until I got 'em. I guess I should still think about cleaning them, though.

griffin

i'd still clean them, just to be on the safe side. i guess i just like to start clean. however, if you're not cycled, and the filter is, i'd keep the filter in, so then you can skip a cycle, but make sure that the tank was disease free before you do that

Gargoyle

Clean it.... Just trust us all and clean those tubes!

armadillo

How do you clean the inside of tubes? (short of just running hot water down them a few times). How do you scrub?

COBettaCouple

I use a rag or paper towels rolled up to clean the inside of the filter tubes.

armadillo

How often to do you that on established tanks?

COBettaCouple

lol.. honestly? never. unless the filter acts up.

armadillo

Yeay! That's what we want to hear! I was bracing myself for a heartbreaking 3x a week or something. Yeay!

maxthedog123

Well, 2 options. The tank is cycled already. Option 1 - take the "no broke right now, don't worry about it" approach. Option 2 - I have two filters. I could clean the daylights out of one of them (hot water only of course), wait 3-4 weeks and clean the daylights out of the other one to make sure I don't kill all of the bacterial in the tank. I still may be able to avoid that if I just rinse the filter media. Opinions?

If I read everyone correctly - going forward don't clean the filters unless there is a reason to.

atmmachine816

You can clean the filters all you want. It's the filter media (sponge, floss, etc.) that keeps a tank cycled more. I would clean the filters well, especialy impeller and intake tube since that will slow you flow down and while your doing that, put your filter media in a bucket of tank water.

griffin

i have a brush that i clean it with. you could also use a toothbrush.

griffin

i do it once in a while. maybe once a year or so. usually when i do a major tank change or cleaning. but i also do it more so it'll look cleaner as opposed to it's really absolutely necessary

armadillo

Cool. That's how I feel about it too. So no regular filter tube clean up for me!

Luniyn

The way I look at it is that this intake tube is what is allowing the junk in your tank to actually get to the filter that actually cleans the water. The more gunk on the sides of the pipe, the less water that is flowing to the actual filter section of the filter. Also the lower the flow of water, the harder the impeller works (especially when it gets covered in gunk too) so that can burn out your filters motor if you aren't careful. So I clean out the tube when I notice a covering of film inside (looks to be about every other month based on the last time I cleaned it) and I use one of those cylinder shaped brushes as well which makes it really quick. But then again, I'm more of a fix things before they need it rather then wait till it breaks to fix it type person. That and I'm board since I can't afford the other tanks I want yet .