How often do you....

[danny zubot]

....take you pumps apart for cleaning? Include, return pumps, skimmer pumps, powerheads etc.

[StirCrazy]

not sure if it helps but for powerheads when they need it, and for main pumps um when they need it :mrgreen:

Steve

[muck]

not sure if it helps but for powerheads when they need it, and for main pumps um when they need it :mrgreen:

Steve

Im with you on that one Steve.. :razz:

[ed99]

Same for me, though I used to get about 4-6 weeks out of my main pump before performance got too bad and I had to clean out the slime.

[Beverly]

I have powerheads that get broken down and cleaned weekly during the water change ritual.

[christyf5]

powerheads: when they start to look oogy. My powerheads grow some terrific algae :rolleyes:

pumps: when something doesn't sound right. I can usually tell when something is up by the harmonics. Usually its sucked up some sort of algae or caulerpa :rolleyes:

skimmer pump: seems every week. I don't know what is up with the stupid thing it seems to have a lull in making bubbles about every half second or so. I'm not as impressed with it as when I first got it (sedra something on a Euroreef ES6-2)

[Scavenger]

?????You're supposed to clean these things???? :eek:
Looks like I have a chore this weekend. :rolleyes:

[Ruth]

Your supposed to pull them apart and clean them? Go figure??? Really I clean my tunze's about once a month and I'm with Christy when things don't sound right on my main pumps. I have a backup pump for all of my waterpumps (return, closed loop, and skimmer) but only because of where I live and having no LFS within reasonable driving distance. I even have backup smaller tunzes incase these go down so in the event of a pump failure from my um extended timeline between cleaning I can replace easily.

[reeferaddict]

MainteWHAT? :redface: :rolleyes: Keeping an eye on my system daily, I clean things when they get ugly, loud, or aren't performing properly. Pumps that receive light will need to be cleaned most often - Ruth has the right approach with back-up pumps... I have a few as well but getting even more... that way when something screws up, it's a quick switch and you can clean at your leisure... (usually a better job!) But Bev cleaning EVERY week... that's just sick... :mrgreen:

[Beverly]

But Bev cleaning EVERY week... that's just sick...

It's not sick, just totally anal :razz:

But really, a clean powerhead is a well functioning powerhead. That's my motto. Why wait for the powerhead or pump to start having problems before cleaning it? Do you do that with your car, for instance? Well, maybe some do :neutral:

On a few rare occasions, I have cleaned only the foams attached to the powerheads and left the powerheads themselves unlceaned for 2-3 weeks, GASP! They were really cruddy inside and took twice as long to thoroughly clean :confused:

[EmilyB]

When they stop working. :mrgreen: