Aquario Neo CO2 diffuser bleach purging hack

[Jungle Fan]

I just had a conversation with another fishkeeper in a local LFS who complained to me about having to wait for the bleach solution to evaporate after cleaning his diffuser and how he dreads cleaning his algae infested CO2 diffuser. So I decided to check the Aquarium Co Op web site if they had any cleaning recommendations, and to my surprise the only thing listed were the pre-installment instructions for the Aquario Neo CO2 diffuser:

"It is recommended to soak the diffuser for 30 minutes or so before use so the brown ceramic disk can become saturated with water and start producing the smallest bubbles right away."

So I decided to share the cleaning routine I have been using on my large Aquario Neo CO2 diffuser from Aquarium Co-Op for years now. I use a plastic syringe to which I have attached a 5" piece of aquarium airline tubing, I draw up the plunger so the syringe is filled with air, then I connect the other end of the airline tubing to the CO2 diffuser pipe and purge the chlorine solution from it. Next I disconnect the diffuser and draw up some distilled water to which I have added a few drops of dechlorinator like Fritz Complete, or Seachem Prime into the syringe. I reconnect the airline tubing to the diffuser and by depressing the plunger force the treated water through the ceramic disk thereby dechlorinating the diffuser. The reason why I used distilled water is so as not to get any calc deposits into the disk.

No big deal, no day of waiting for drying, no apprehension about left over bleach.

Just thought I'd share after hearing from someone "how much cleaning trouble", the very same diffuser I've been using for near two years without any trouble at all, is.  

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by Jungle Fan
typo

[CT_]

I have one that's not in need of cleaning yet but it will be one day so thanks for this!

 

Has anyone treated these like an airstone and just blasted them with compressed air under water?  It works great with my conventional air stones but I'm not too sure about the finer pores in a co2 diffuser.