Cleaning External Tetra 600

[Anele]

I had the filter for 6 month. I must admit I only cleaned it once (3 month ago) but the water flow has always been very good and water parameters always been fine even though I might be slightly overstocked. Anyway, fishes are fine as well - never had any fatalities and they all seem to be happy. My main worry is the state of the pipes. They are transparent and I could see that the dirt and algae grew there very quickly after I had installed it. Again it didn;t seem to affect the water flow but I realise that at some point I'd have to clean it. The instructions do not say anything about cleaning the pipes. Please can you let me know what is the best way to clean them without spilling half of the water on the floor. We've got wooden floors and that would be an absalute disaster. Thanks a lot.

Anele

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you get tube brush cleaners which you can use for this. you basically turn the filter off, disconnect the tubes, take them outside away from the nice wooden floors and scrube the pipe cleaners through them, then hook them back onto the filter and switch it all back on.

it's not an essential bit of maintenance to do regularly, you only really need to do it if you don't like the look of the tubes with algae in.

 

[Anele]

Thanks a lot! I'll leave it then for a while if it's not essential.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Being lazy I leave them until I can bear them no longer then just replace with new tubing. You can buy it by the metre and its never that expensive. I find the tubing just too much of a pain to bother cleaning to be honest, the only thing I routinely clean is the spray bar.

 

[pscl227]

I have a TetraTec EX600 as well, I was just wondering how often are you supposed to clean it all out?

Is it a case of only when the water rate slows down, or is there an agreed pre-defined amount of time between cleaning it?

cheers

 

[mark.w.jones]

Most external cannister filters only need cleaning every 2 months I would say or if flow rate slows significantly as you mention.