How to clean Eheim hoses?

[nicholsd]

Where do you get the right brushes to clean the hoses?

City Pets sold me a  flexible brush that was not long enough to reach the middle of the hose. I used a lead sinker and some fishing line and droped it through the hose and then pulled the brush through. Worked but a pain. The brush was junk, used it three times all the bristles fell off.

I have a 2213 and 2217. So how do you clean them.

Dale

[CichlidFan]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

You could just stick the hose's under the kitchen facuet and run HOT water thru them, Maybe stick your thumbs over both ends and then wack the hose on the counter top to expell some of the build up of that gooey sticky stuff. It's kind of messy, but it will get most of the big stuff off the inside of your hoses.


CF

[rrocket2002]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

old fashion wire clothes hanger....open it up and secure some mesh to one end to there you go.

Raul

[5thwardboy]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

dip thoe entire hose in bleach mix water for 30 min to hr.  Rinse with water real good and dip it back into water treated with drops to remove chlorine. I hope this should help.

[Zulaab]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

Has anyone gone to a sporting store and picked up bore snake to clean their hoses with them ?  I was thinking about getting a .50 cal bore snake.  That should take the crud out pretty quick.

I need to measure the inside diameter of a eheim hose and then get the correct size.  After that I can get the bore snake.

[Hanson77]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

Have fun pulling that through a rubber hose.....LOL.  They are tough enough to pull through a shotgun barrel by yourself, let alone a flexible hose.  If it works though....rock on!!!

[CichlidFan]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

I'm thinking really stiff bristles would score the inside of the hose. A cloth on a long rod, soaking with chemicals or just a hot water rinse would be my first choices. Maybe a wooden dowel could be used to push a piece of sponge thru the hose?  

CF

[eklikewhoa]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

The boresnake would probably work......I have a spare .50cal bore snake laying around too....

I just leave it be till it gets real bad and just hit it with the pressure washer. That unclogs most of the gunk so that it won't back siphon into the tank so I'm satisfied with that.

[rrocket2002]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

Isn't the "gunk" buildup good bacteria?  I know it doesn't look too pretty, but that's another reason for green hoses.  There was a previous thread about this some time back...

Raul

[eklikewhoa]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

Yes it is.

[CichlidFan]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, that you might not want to remove all the build up, just the bigger chunks. I think it would be "friendly" or helpful to the filtration to keep some of it.

CF

[Mzungu]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

Think this is the one you're talking about, Raul?

http://houstonfishbox.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1108

[rrocket2002]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

That's the one.

Thanks!

Raul

[PhishPhreek]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

At the hardware store you can get a hose to pipe adapter and a pipe to slip on fitting to fit the hose.    then you can blast it with full pressure.

If you want hot water, there is a hose drain valve on the bottom of your water heater.

But I would do the bleach soak first.  :wink:

[Anonapersona]

Re: How to clean Eheim hoses?

If you "backwash" the hoses when you are cleaning the filter you will blow a lot of the crud out. Just manually open the valve after disconnecting it from the filter and shoot water into a bucket. Notice that about half of that crud was from the outlet line and would have blasted into your clean tank on startup. This will delay, but not replace, the need to actually clean the hoses.

You can use a properly sized tubing brush attached to a length of weedwacker line to pull through the hose, but you have to completely dissassemble the whole lines to do this. That means taking off the end fittings so you have just tubing. Before I get to that point, I typically take the entire tubing assembly out into the yard and use the garden hose full blast to try to clean it.

IMO, best practice is to backwash everytime you open up the canister and put off the big cleaning as long as possible. That crud is part of your filtration but even a tiny bit reduces flow significantly so you do not want to let it build up. Better to keep the crud in the filter body where it belongs and keep your flow rates up.

PS, I would not do a bleach soak! The tubing can retain bleach, even if you wash it with dechlor. Been there, done that, killed a tank of fish thinking the tubing had been decholored sufficiently. I won't do that again. Anyhow, after the bleach, you still have to run a pipe cleaner through it to remove dead bacteria. turning the brown to white is not the same as removing it.