Equipment Review and Discussion :: filter tubes

[retard]

how do you guys keep these clean? i like all my stuff to be alge free and ive had my xp2 for 2 weeks now and i can see some alge buiding up in the tubes

[xsavingsaturdayx]

You want to clean the inside of the tube right? If so,then an old toothbrush would work,scrub all the algea off with it.

[steve]

You mean the inside of the tubes? I tie a fishing weight onto some string, slip it through and pull a peice of wet paper towel through. Its gross, but it works.

[Muirner]

But how do you get it through the part that has the lever on it? I figure out how to trick it into closing but do you do that too??

[steve]

Lever? You should be able to disconnect the tubes and unlock the rings. You have to take all the tubes apart.

[Muirner]

after trying to put them on the first time that was such a hassel, they wouldnt slide on for crap.

Also the rings, are hard to take off.

[CountryGirl68]

I've used a pliers to get the rings off the XP3 but the tubing took almost an hour to put on .... how do you get it off? (BTW, good idea for cleaning the tube, Steve)

[steve]

They do get easir after a few tries. You will also notice that the rings do not need to be very tight. At first, I had them locked in very tight but now I can usually just use my fingers to get them off. I only bring out the pliers sometimes

If the tube is wet (inside + out), you'd have an easier time taking it off. It's not easy, but I just pull and pull. I look stupid doing it and it may take a few tries, but it will also get easier.

[SpotsMama]

The one complaint I have about the XP series is those tubes and how you have to be an Arnold Swarzenegger to get them off and on. If Rena would fix this, then they'd have a practically perfect product.

[marisa]

I never once took off the tubing from the lever end in all the time I used the XP3--too much of a hassle, and I couldn't be bothered with fighting the tubing to get it off (and I didn't want to loosen the tubing at that end).

All you have to do to clean the tubing is take off the intake and outake pieces, attach a small piece of cloth (or whatever) on to a string (I used the brush from a flexible tube cleaner), use a wooden dowel to push the cloth/brush to the very end and pull it back. Do this a few times, and the tubing should be clean. The shorter the tubes, the easier it is to do, but I was able to clean them very well even when they were the recommended length when the filter was on the floor below a table.

It didn't bother me to see some algae/buildup in the tubing. If I let it go, it eventually cleaned itself.