How to clean second hand filter tubing?

[EVoyager31]

Got a great deal on a 75g tank, stand, canister filter and a slew of other accessories. 
Question is: What is the best way to clean the tubing for the canister? I can see algae in the tube.. would it be better to just buy new tubing for it?

 

thanks!

[Colu]

You could run a pump in a bucket of water with hydrogen peroxide to flush out the pipes and kill anything nasty left in their I would probably just replace the pipes depending on how long they have been on their

[modified lung]

Feed some yarn through the pipe, tie a scrubby or whatever else to one end of the yarn, and pull it through.

If It's a short amount of pipe, I unbend a wire coat hanger, feed that through the pipe, attach a scrubby to one end, bend the other end into a crank handle, and crank it back through.

[Flumpweesel]

You can buy brushes to clean it with as well. The smooth is pretty easy to flush out and clean the ribbed fluval stuff can be more work.

Soak the entire length in warm water to loosen the grot and make the tubing more malleable. Depending on how much you need you might choose to replace it's generally not that expensive.

Before you start though make sure it's the right length for your set up I'd be really miffed if I spent time cleaning it just to find out it's short by 1"

[EVoyager31]

On 6/20/2022 at 6:48 PM, Flumpweesel said:

You can buy brushes to clean it with as well. The smooth is pretty easy to flush out and clean the ribbed fluval stuff can be more work.

Soak the entire length in warm water to loosen the grot and make the tubing more malleable. Depending on how much you need you might choose to replace it's generally not that expensive.

Before you start though make sure it's the right length for your set up I'd be really miffed if I spent time cleaning it just to find out it's short by 1"

Woof, good point. I’ll be sure to measure.

Thank you!

[Guppysnail]

On 6/20/2022 at 5:40 PM, EVoyager31 said:

would it be better to just buy new tubing for it?

Others have given great how to clean. Canister tubing becomes brittle and cracks over time… how much depends on a slew of things. If it seems to rigid or brittle you may want to consider new. If the canister isn’t that old I would clean it. 

[EVoyager31]

On 6/20/2022 at 6:53 PM, Guppysnail said:

Others have given great how to clean. Canister tubing becomes brittle and cracks over time… how much depends on a slew of things. If it seems to rigid or brittle you may want to consider new. If the canister isn’t that old I would clean it. 

Yeah not sure how long it has been running… I’m leaning toward replacing at this point. Seems easier and I need to get new filter media anyway.

[rdflash0788]

I apologize if this is answered elsewhere, I searched but couldn't find anything so thought I'd ask here. If it needs to be asked somewhere else or on its own post let me know and I'll do that. 🙂

I am upgrading my filters from 2 Tidal 75's on my 75 G freshwater tank to a Fluval FX4 with inline UVC from my son who is moving. He also has a 75 G tank so the refit should be easier since it will be all the same dimensions. Yayy for that! 

He's has only had the tank set up long enough to get through a cycle and has not had any sick fish or issues other than a little orange'ish colored algae. How should I go about cleaning the FX4 to make sure I don't introduce any pathogens or other unwanted stuff? I will quarantine the fish for a few weeks before putting them in the big tank but am not sure what to do with the canister filter. 

Thanks for any advice/input, it is greatly appreciated!

[EVoyager31]

On 9/18/2023 at 12:31 PM, rdflash0788 said:

I apologize if this is answered elsewhere, I searched but couldn't find anything so thought I'd ask here. If it needs to be asked somewhere else or on its own post let me know and I'll do that. 🙂

I am upgrading my filters from 2 Tidal 75's on my 75 G freshwater tank to a Fluval FX4 with inline UVC from my son who is moving. He also has a 75 G tank so the refit should be easier since it will be all the same dimensions. Yayy for that! 

He's has only had the tank set up long enough to get through a cycle and has not had any sick fish or issues other than a little orange'ish colored algae. How should I go about cleaning the FX4 to make sure I don't introduce any pathogens or other unwanted stuff? I will quarantine the fish for a few weeks before putting them in the big tank but am not sure what to do with the canister filter. 

Thanks for any advice/input, it is greatly appreciated!

If there hasn’t been any issues then I wouldn’t worry about it… but knowing there was weird algae would have me cleaning it really well.

If you are nervous about contaminants or something coming over from the old tank I’d just give it a really good rinse and replace all the media and start from scratch.

 

Safest option is always to clean everything really well. I know in past experience I buy new tubing because they're more difficult to clean.