Suggestion on cleaning powerheads

[ALang]

I read that people use vinegar to soak their powerheads to clean off the algae, etc. Here I have been scrubbing, scraping and cussing about doing it for years!
Questions: do you use vinegar full strength? Do you just put the whole PH into a bucket and just let it soak (how long, approx??)? Do you need a new bucket of vinegar for every PH or can it be used over and over again? And of course rinse everything thoroughly afterwards.
Thanks. Finally, an easier(?) way of cleaning PHs.

[PoonTang]

About 1 C vinegar per 1G hot water. Let soak for a few hours, scrub, repeat if necessary. I actually let the PH run while in the bucket. You can re-use the vinegar quite a bit but it does eventually weaken.

[banditpowdercoat]

5 gal bucket, A old salt bucket works awesome 1 gal vinigar, 3 or 4 gal water. Let PH run over night. Seal bucket and it can be re used over and over and over.

[bvlester]

what I do is 1 cup vinegar to 1 gallon water I use double that in a 5g salt bucket and run the power heads in it over night they come out looking like new on scrubbing at all. I have been doing it this way for as long as I can remember even for FW stuff. as stated by banditpowdercoat you can seal it and reuse it.

Bill

[fkshiu]

100% vinegar soak.

Just pour it back into the jug afterwards using a brine shrimp net to filter out the crap. I use it several times over with no loss in strength. The vinegar ends up pink at the end of it all because of all the dissolved coralline.

[Leah]

I have an old salt bucket full of pure vinegar and I just reuse it over and over. I put things into soak over night and scrub it in the morning or when I remember works great. :biggrin:

I have a thing about yucky power heads and heaters etc. :wink:

[DiverDude]

It depends on how much vinegar I have left ! Go pure for faster results but you can dilute it if you like.

Cosco has vinegar for cheap (~$7 for 2 jugs (about 4 litres each jug))

[ALang]

I can't wait to actually see my PH CLEAN again without all that scrubbing and scrapping!! Thanks everyone. Things you learn on this site are amazing. Will be running to costco right away. Thanks everyone.

[Captainhemo]

Cosco has vinegar for cheap (~$7 for 2 jugs (about 4 litres each jug))

Good to know !

[Wayne]

Thats too much work for me. I let my mexican turbo snails do all that work me :) The snails jump on every week or so and do a "good enough" job for me. I will post a pick of mine when I get home and you can be the judge.

[gobytron]

This is a cheap, bio-friendly and effective means of cleaning just about anything to do with your aquarium.

There is no set measurements, but the idea is the higher the vinegar to water ratio, the stronger it will be and the quicker it will work.

I often do a good 3:1 Water:Vinegar soak for a couple hours followed by a light brushing on any item I sell and they usually come out looking spotless.

The other side of the coin is that vinegar works the same way on just about everything; it's corrosive.
So don't leave things running in it for too long, especially if you go 100% vinegar just in case.

[Wayne]

Here are a few shots of my powerheads. This is the dirtiest they ever get because of my mexican turbo snails. One is 8 months old and never been cleaned the other is slightly newer and also never been manually cleaned:

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/Racing_Rush/IMG_2750.jpg

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/Racing_Rush/IMG_2748.jpg

[fkshiu]

Snails, unfortunately, can't get underneath the shroud. But more importantly, you must clean the magnet housing inside the pump because calcium will invariably build up inside over time. Roger Vitko of Tunze explains it thusly:

"Why do pumps become jammed with Calcium? The answer is simple and it may surprise you to learn the same thing happens in your pumps as happens at the coral polyp when skeleton is laid down for growth. Inside a pump we have both heat and vacuum, by Boyles law we decrease the solubility of CO2 and the pH increase in a local zone this precipitates CaCO3. Pumps vary in this effect, most pump have an internal temp of 4C over ambient, a Stream is about 1C. Vacuum is hard to quantify. At the coral polyp the zooxanthellae removes CO2 from the water by photosynthetic activity, this does the same thing, the pH increase and CaCO3 precipitates and is added to the skeleton."

As a result, a few minutes of maintenance every few months can prolong both the life and efficiency of your pump.

[Wayne]

Snails, unfortunately, can't get underneath the shroud. But more importantly, you must clean the magnet housing inside the pump because calcium will invariably build up inside over time. Roger Vitko of Tunze explains it thusly:

"Why do pumps become jammed with Calcium? The answer is simple and it may surprise you to learn the same thing happens in your pumps as happens at the coral polyp when skeleton is laid down for growth. Inside a pump we have both heat and vacuum, by Boyles law we decrease the solubility of CO2 and the pH increase in a local zone this precipitates CaCO3. Pumps vary in this effect, most pump have an internal temp of 4C over ambient, a Stream is about 1C. Vacuum is hard to quantify. At the coral polyp the zooxanthellae removes CO2 from the water by photosynthetic activity, this does the same thing, the pH increase and CaCO3 precipitates and is added to the skeleton."

As a result, a few minutes of maintenance every few months can prolong both the life and efficiency of your pump.


Hum well then. Guess I have plans for this weekend :)