Habitat - Indoor :: Canister tubings clogged!!

[swiltz]

Hey guys, Just wanna ask how often do u clean your canister tubings. Mine are rubber tubes that tend to clog up rather quickly, within 1.5 weeks, and thus reduce my water flow by quite a fair bit ( ard 30%?) I noticed that they tend to get clogged up with turtle skin...which turns black after all the other waste catches onto it..

Do u guys face the same problem?? Because its rather troublesome to clean out the tubings every week or so just to maintain my water flow.. :/

[MEandYouPhoto]

I used to have the same problem with my filter but I was also using filters that were just too small to handle the turtle waste. What filter are you using, how big is your tank, how many turtles?

I ended up buying a hose brush similar to http://www.petmountain.com/product/aqua ... brush.html

It really helps in cleaning them and keeping them cleaner longer.

[swiltz]

im using the sun sun series.. which are suited for 100galleon tanks..
i house my 6 inch res in a 50 gallon tank alone. yea i have once of those hose brushes too. im wondering why it builds up so quickly..

[MEandYouPhoto]

I am not familiar with the Sun Sun series but I still think your filter may be under powered for your turtle. 100 gallons of water filtration is not the same as 100 turtle gallons. You need 3x the filtration for a turtle so your 100 gallon filter is effectively a 33 1/3 gallon filter for your 50 gallon tank. I do not know how much water you have in your tank but even if its 2/3 of the way full it still may not be enough filtration for your little guy.

Additionally your media configuration may be reducing the water flow and causing hoses to clog up faster. I would spend some time looking at the "Filter Media Thread"
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30145 and see if you are getting the most out of your filter.

[PridgNYC]

Hmm, no, haven't had that problem, I still have pretty good flow through my FX5, although it has only been 14 months since I cleaned it or the hoses. The FX5 does have 1 inch ID black corrugated tubing which discourages slime mold and algae formations, so maybe that helps. I agree with checking the Filter media thread, I packed the FX5 with VeipaCray's recommendation.

14 Months with no cleaning is the best recommendation I can give.

[vear]

I clean the hoses about once every 6 months to a year! Once every week and a half seems crazy!

[Into_the_Mystic]

I bought a tube brush and hooked a straightened out clothes hanger at the end and shove it through the tubes and then rinse it out. I have to to do each side separately because it only goes 1/2 way down.

Works wonders and gets them clean as new.

[VeipaCray]

im using the sun sun series.. which are suited for 100galleon tanks..
i house my 6 inch res in a 50 gallon tank alone. yea i have once of those hose brushes too. im wondering why it builds up so quickly..

This IS the problem. Your filter is severely undersized for your aquarium and that sized turtle. Your filters "rating" is based on flow rate and media capacity and what's deemed adequate by the manufacturer for a community fish tank. Your single turtle will produce a MUCH higher bioload than what a community of fish will produce.


You can buy replacement tubing by the foot at the hardware store for not much money. It's usually a few cents per foot.

I've NEVER had a canister tubing line clog in the 20-25 years that I've had various canister filters. I have had one become brittle and cause a leak