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Cleaning small glass inlet

jameson_uk

Member
Joined
10 Jun 2016
Messages
879
Location
Birmingham
I have a small glass inlet on filter on my Betta tank which is a pain to clean. The combination of 8mm pipework, only one end being accessible and the curve of the glass means cleaning the but near the actual inlet is neigh on impossible. It is too small for pipe brushes, toothbrushes.....

I have been using pipe cleaners which do a good job to a point but it is difficult to get them right round the top curve and then you have. O leverage.

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Will bleach actually remove this stuck on grime? If I use baby sterilising bleach (which I have to hand) would it need soaking or should washing it actually be sufficient? If using bleach how long does prime take to make it safe? Can I just wash it in dechlorinated water or does it need time to soak in order to neutralise the bleach?
 
TBH the aquarium industry has made people too paranoid about the use of bleach. As long as it's unscented and has no additives like detergents, it's perfectly safe to use for cleaning items outside of a tank with livestock, as it leaves no taint. The only way it can kill your livestock is if it ends up directly in the water column (only possible if you don't rinse at all).

Baby sterilising bleach likely won't be strong enough, but you can give it a go- it might work and will do no harm.

I use ADA Superge, which is a bleach solution that is very strong (you put 8ml into 1000ml of water before use) and it cleans glass in minutes with no scrubbing whatsoever. I suspect - but have no proof other than my nose- that it has the same active ingredient as unscented Thin Bleach that you can buy from Tesco (sodium hypochlorite), but I've no idea how the strength relates, especially after diluting the Superge as directed. I have used Thin Bleach from Tesco to clean glassware in the past and it also works but not quite as quickly as Superge.

You can rinse it in water with extra Prime added (I use a 2.5ml syringe in 1000ml water but this is probably extreme overkill).
 
I use thick bleach 1:1 with water to clean mine. Glass shouldn't absorb any chemicals and should rinse off without problems. And like @lilirose mentions, If you're still worried you can always soak for a bit in Prime or similar.
 
I always just put my glassware in a large container and pour a generous amount of bleach from aldi directly onto glassware and add hot/boiling water and leave to soak for 30 mims then rince in tap water in sink and add cap full of prime and give a quick jiggle and always been fine

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I guess I was concerned as to whether bleach would clean it off as it seems to want a little bit of scrubbing. I have recharged Purigen before now and was thinking I needed to add Prime / let it sit to neutralise it.

I tend to not use bleach for cleaning that much as I find it hides grime rather than actually removing it. (Although a lot of that is probably hard water residue which I guess needs acid to remove)

If glass won't absorb anything I guess that isn't a issue then.
 
I posted something many many years ago if you can find it to help with this problem and there should be some pictures on there. Essentially what I did was use some fishing wire to tie a strip I cut off a bathroom scrunchy to the end of some soft airline tubing (warm up the tubing with boiling water before trying to get a sawing needle to go through) You can get all the way through the small glass tubes without fearing scratching them. Just make sure the scrunchy is tied on well. Not sure how you would get it back out if the scrunchy came off inside the pipe.
 
I guess I was concerned as to whether bleach would clean it off as it seems to want a little bit of scrubbing. I have recharged Purigen before now and was thinking I needed to add Prime / let it sit to neutralise it.

I tend to not use bleach for cleaning that much as I find it hides grime rather than actually removing it. (Although a lot of that is probably hard water residue which I guess needs acid to remove)

If glass won't absorb anything I guess that isn't a issue then.

Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) will break down organic matter at the cellular level, so it does in fact dissolve any organic matter on your lily pipes, and remove it completely. You can use Milton sterilising fluid if you have that - it actually contains more sodium hypochlorite than standard supermarket thin bleach (2% vs 1%).

What it won’t remove is any salt deposits which is why it only whitens limescale and doesn’t remove it, as you are seeing in your inlet pipe. For limescale you need some Citric acid and soak the pipes in a solution of that after treating with the bleach. Then rinse thoroughly and you are done.

Or you can do what I have done, switch back to black plastic pipe work and never have to worry about cleaning annoying glassware ever again! 😆
 
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