Cleaning glass Lily Pipes

[Richard Allen]

Hello,
I have glass lily pipes for the inlet and outlet for my tropical aquarium and am very pleased with them.

The glass outlet pipe is easy to clean with a long flexible pipe cleaning brush.

The glass inlet pipe has no open end to it (just slits to let the water flow in) to insert a brush so has to be removed for cleaning.

I have seen YouTube videos where the flexible tubing is removed from the glass pipe to enable cleaning and then re-attached.

My question is...

Surely the removal and re-attachment of the flexible hose to the glass pipe would, over time, become looser and eventually fail resulting in gallons of water on the floor?

Have you had any experience of removal and re-attachment of flexible tubing to pipework and therefore might be able to offer any advice?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[Jayefc1]

To attach the hose place in hot water for a couple of mins to make the hose pliable and push up and on securely

As the hose cools it will create a seal

To unattach the hose push up slightly till you hear a little click and the seal has broke and will now twist off very easily

 

[Richard Allen]

Thank you for your message; I'm more concerned about putting the hose back onto the pipe and then finding out in the middle of the night that it loosened, fell off and my lounge is filled with water and my fish are dead

Surely the removal and re-attachment of the hose will weaken the 'fit' after time?

Or do people just replace the tubing a couple of times every year?

 

[Siege]

Yes as Jaye says the tubing will reseal itself.

It’ll last for years. In time if you feel it is loose just cut a couple of inches off it. Heat up and attach the Newley cut bit back on.

You’ve got more chance of breaking the glassware getting it off than you have of it falling off!!

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Jumping on the back of this tgread rather than creating a nww one... how do I 'encourage' a pipe cleaner round the bend on my lily pipes? I've never managed to clean my intake properly without detaching it (and I hate having to do this so don't do it nearly often enough!) as I can't get round the bend... Been thinking about an island aquascape recently and so a dirty lily pipe will become VERY obvious!

 

[Siege]

Just detach it it’s easy, don’t pull, instead push and bend at the same time.....🙂

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Hi Siege, thanks for the tip... id still rather be able to do then in situ... taking the tubing out from behind the tank etc is a real pain... not something I want to have to do every other week if I can avoid it!

 

[Majsa]

My lazy girl's solution: custom glass lily pipe attached to a steel pipe. I don't remove the hoses from the steel pipes but clean them in one go with a flexible tube brush.