Cleaning your filter hoses?

Hello all,

Soon i'll be switching from a 20G to a 50G tank, which is exciting, but also brings some silly little worries.

One such worry is how do people deal with cleaning their filter installation when it's all built into a cabinet?
Currently my canister filter locks itself shut when I pull the hose cap off, and it just sits beside my tank without going through anything, so removing the hoses is a sinch. But once I have my 50 gallon tank set up, with a nice fat canister filter underneath in a cabinet, with the hoses fed through holes the back, things start working a little different. All the bits and bops seemingly don't come off as easy.

How do people clean their hoses and fittings? I know the filter has a locking slider that basically plugs it shut, but that still leaves you with a pair of long waterlogged hoses, doesn't it? Do you just disassemble it on the spot with water spilling all over the place as you try and worm the hoses out from behind the tank? Is there a trick to it?

I hope people can give me some maintenance tips for my new bigboy tank.

 

If you have to take the hoses out isnt there a way of releasing the water first,
Got a picture I'm trying to get my head around what you've got

 

My cabinet is about 5 inches away from the wall and has an open back so it's easy to remove the hoses and shut off valves complete. Does yours need to have an almost closed back? Can you make the holes bigger?

 

My tank setup is a bit annoying, as it is a retrofitted custom desk kind of thing.
I will have to drill a circular hole near the back and to the side of the tank to feed the hoses and lighting power cable down to a space below. But the filter hoses having hooks and mounts on one end, and being shoved onto a filter barb fitting on the other end, I'm not exactly sure how I can remove the hoses without flopping water all over. :')

 

It might make things easier to understand if you could take photo's to show what you are trying to explain....

 

It might make things easier to understand if you could take photo's to show what you are trying to explain....

As I said in the opening post; I dont have the tank yet.
So I obviously can't make pictures of it?

 

As I said in the opening post; I dont have the tank yet.
So I obviously can't make pictures of it?

Once you have the aquarium infront of you, it will probably all become very clear to you how the things you want to do can be done. Trying to guess how things are fitted from trade descriptions/images is usually almost impossible to visualise til its there, sat infront of you.

 

Well a hole is a hole and a hose is a hose? I don't see how having that in front of me will change anything. All I'm trying to find out is how people remove the hose without spilling everywhere. I cant see people just letting it dunk out all over their cabinet, so surely theres a trick to it that im not yet aware of.

The way I clean my filter now, is I just twist a cap off my canister, which closes the hose barbs automatically when I do. Then I just lift the whole thing, cap and hoses and intake/outlet and all, up and into a bucket with virtually no spillage.

With other filters, like the Fluval FX6 and Oase Thermo 250, all I see is a pair of barbs, and sometimes a slider that closes the canister side. To clean the hoses it seems you just have to pull them off the barb. So do people pull off the hose and just let the remaining water in the hoses fly out, or not?

 

My Tetra EX600 Plus external filters......unplug from the power, unlock the taps from the body of the filter after turning off the taps/hose joints. Remove 50% of water in aquarium as per normal water change (thus water level well below outflow spraybar). Get bucket, put tap section into bucket, open valves and let water in hoses out into the bucket. Use extra long flexi hose cleaning brush (available at all petshops and online aquatic suppliers) and remove hoses from the taps, clean with said flexi brushes, put hose back onto tap, repeat on the other hose, once done put filter back onto hoses/tap section, re-prime canister, refill aquarium to normal level, plug into the power and turn on......a few air farts later all good on the filter, hoses nice and clean, water changed and all done and dusted....including any media changes that might be needed such as floss inside the canister.

Flexi brush like this....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/StaiBC-Flexible-Aquarium-Cleaning-Bendable/dp/B008LR2KCA

 

Oh, it seems your filter actually comes with taps you can close. That seems very helpful, and I should have thought of that. Once you drain the hoses safely into a bucket you can just pull it apart without spraying the area. The Oase filter im thinking of buying can also unlock and detach the entire barb head, just like your filter can, but it unfortunately does not have the handy taps. Though I can probably just fit it with some generic valve taps and achieve the same. Once the water is out I can just detach the spraybar and inlet and feed the whole thing down and out. I was probably overthinking this a bit. Thanks!

And yes, those spring brushes are fantastic. People seem to recommend cleaning hoses with hydrogen peroxide and a pump, but I really don't like to sterilize anything in my tank. Id be worried some remnants might crash my filter media.

Heh, airfarts.. The first time I experienced that, it scared the hebejeebees out of me. I thought my filter was about to implode. The Oase filter I want has a little squish button on it to prime it, seemed handy.

 

These come on EX 800, 1200 and 2400 depending on aquarium capacity/requirement

I like them cos they are easy to maintain and dead silent (I have two installed in bedroom, two in lounge and one in the hallway and never hear any of them)

Tetra EX 600 plus complete external filter set

 

I like filters that include a heater, because its less clutter.
The Tetra units do seem to have a nice big media column though.

 

I like filters that include a heater, because its less clutter.
The Tetra units do seem to have a nice big media column though.

I have JBL S Pro Heat heaters, they are positioned tween the intake pipe and the spraybar so are really quite well hidden and not doing a "sticking out like a sore thumb". I like the heater cos they come with a guard (always useful if you have heater huggers like BN's...no singed fins and tails.

The filter has ceramics, plastic balls, foam of different textures, floss and carbon chips in a bag (not carbon impregnated foam), all of which can be swapped around or changed for something else depending on the conditions of the water etc. They are also inexpensive to buy...which when on a budget is always useful.