Need Help With This..

[justin85]

hey all,
 
I purchased a filter (eheim pro 3 2080) off eBay, it was used on a marine tank and the seller didnt clean it at all and arrived in a very messy state, which i don't care to much about as it works and I got it for a very good price.
 
So I have started cleaning it, but there is these white spot like things inside the filter and everywhere! and it takes some work to remove them. Now I keep Cichlids, and small tropicals and know nothing about marines hence why I am here aging you wonderful people for some advice as I am sure you know exactly what these white things are, and I am hoping you know of some easy methods to cleaning/removing them. I am in no rush to use this filter, and will also be sterilizing it once I have cleaned it of all visual dirt so the use of chemicals is an option if it will make my life easier in removing the things.
 
Any help or advice would be much appreciated !
 
 

 

 

[DerpPH]

Those are barnacles. Very hard to remove. I mean really hard!!! 

 

[justin85]

Those are barnacles. Very hard to remove. I mean really hard!!! 

 
 
Dont I know it !  spent 2 hours cleaning the rest of the filter and have not finished yet......
 
Once I get rid of the visual "mess" I will sterilize the whole filter using food grade Hydrogen peroxide which is 35% pure and will kill any organic life left on/in the filter.
 
So there's no tricks to removing them? 

 

[Donya]

Those are not barnacles but rather are a type of filter-feeding worm (Spirorbid) that is very common in marine tanks. My filters are full of them. When I have needed to clean them off of things, I usually soak the encrusted surface in RO water for a couple of days and then scrub with a toothbrush. Fingernails pushing at the edge also pop the shells free easily on most surfaces, but it's very tedious to do that for all of them. 
 

Once I get rid of the visual "mess" I will sterilize the whole filter using food grade Hydrogen peroxide which is 35% pure and will kill any organic life left on/in the filter.

 
You shouldn't need to go to that extreme for sterilization purposes. If the filter is dry, it is dead. The main issue is cleaning to remove things like those worm shells and any caked stuff that would decay over time. If it's possible to rig up, I've always found that one of the easiest ways to flush out a filter after scrubbing is to just let it run media-less on a bucket of RO for a few days.

 

[justin85]

Those are not barnacles but rather are a type of filter-feeding worm (Spirorbid) that is very common in marine tanks. My filters are full of them. When I have needed to clean them off of things, I usually soak the encrusted surface in RO water for a couple of days and then scrub with a toothbrush. Fingernails pushing at the edge also pop the shells free easily on most surfaces, but it's very tedious to do that for all of them. 
 
 
 

Once I get rid of the visual "mess" I will sterilize the whole filter using food grade Hydrogen peroxide which is 35% pure and will kill any organic life left on/in the filter.

 
You shouldn't need to go to that extreme for sterilization purposes. If the filter is dry, it is dead. The main issue is cleaning to remove things like those worm shells and any caked stuff that would decay over time. If it's possible to rig up, I've always found that one of the easiest ways to flush out a filter after scrubbing is to just let it run media-less on a bucket of RO for a few days.

 
 
Thanks for your reply, Its just a process I normally carry out with most second hand equipment, manly because the tank it will be going in will have wild cichlids which cost quite a bit so its peace of mind I guess. Hydrogen peroxide degrades down to oxygen and water after time and when its been exposed to sunlight and air so using this type of chemical even though it sound very risky isn't really. 
 
These things are quite touch to remove, I was using a small scraper and tooth brush to do the top corner which took ages so I guess I will just have to go about it the long way. I will soak it for a day or 2 then go at it again.

 

[MBOU]

To be honest, after such a cleaning, they aren't going to do any harm to a tropical tank I would just remove ones that may affect the functioning of the filter eg near the impeller or pipes etc and forget the rest (or just get worst off) so maybe it doesn't look so great but you don't have to stare at it that often and you might find they come off in time if being run on marine. They aren't harmful

 

[stanleo]

I have these in my filters too. I also have these filter feeders living on my live rock. They are tiny but you can see their fans filtering in the water and I assumed they were beneficial. Like MBOU said, I just cleaned the bulk of them out of the filter with a scrapper and left some of them in. Any kind of filtration is good filtration. At least I think so.
 
I don't think you will ever get rid of all of them if that is your goal.

 

[Donya]

Had an idea at 3am last night...a vinegar soak might also be worth a shot for dissolving the shells or at least weakening them enough that they brush off more easily.