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Cleaning Water Change Hoses

Courtneybst

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Hey guys,

I have some hose that I use for water changes that's around 20ft/6m long and I've noticed it's getting progressively more dirty, specifically with black mould. I have a suspicion that some of this mould has actually transferred to the aquarium (but that's another issue).

The longest pipe cleaners I can find online are around 5ft and obviously I need it to be at least 10ft to reach the centre point to clean from both ends. I think because of the length of the tube it doesn't dry effectively between water changes. I've tried soaking in a warm bleach solution, hanging to dry (completely vertically) for days and nothing seems to work.

Any ideas?

Cheers
 
21ft of string, a vacuum cleaner, and a wad of filter floss or cloth. Tie floss to end of string. Suck other end of string through the pipe with the vacuum (with dry pipe!). Wet the floss, pull it through. Job done.

(Helps (a lot) if the pipe is straight. Use strong string and floss, if it breaks then you will need a 20ft stick!)

For extra tangly fun, use 42ft of string and tie the floss in the middle, then you can clean in the reverse direction too :)

Or, get some 1/2" hozelock connectors (assuming it is 12/16 hose it'll go on) and split the hose into smaller parts, then clean individually.
 
Following this thread with interest, I have a black mouldy looking coating in mine as well. I have used a "Nylon Cable Rod Draw Wire" to pull a cleaning brush through, but it started struggling around the 10 meter mark as we were pushing it in.
 
I have 20 odd ft of clear hose thats got a pump on one end for easy water changes, and i too have parts with black mold in. I was thinking of using diluted bleach solution, but unsure how to pass that through the hose. The string, and vacuum idea is a good one so will give that a go.
 
You can help keep the inside of the hose dry by very slowly draining it after use. If you can move the hose whilst still full to the sink and pinch the end so it drains slowly, the fluid front of water should pass through the pipe, without leaving droplets. If the hose is clear, you also get the satisfaction of watching it happen! If you just let it all drain out at full speed, droplets of water dettach and remain the pipe. On bigger hoses, this could be more a chore than just cleaning out every few months, but works well on smaller hoses.
 
For anyone that's interested I cut the tubes in half and used a pipe cleaner up to the middle point on both ends. We normally ALWAYS have bleach but when I need it do we have it? No. So I used Easy Carbo, at least it's safer.

In the pictures you can see the black mould inside the tubes and now it's clean.

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Coil the pipe up in a bucket and then fill with a bleach water solution, leave over night and jobs a good un. I also make mine uni directional so one end always goes in the tank and the other is the outflow. This means anything in the pipe never makes it into the tank.
 
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