Powerhead/Pump Maintenance Poll

Keeping our water moving is one of the most important things we can do for our aquariums. Pumps and powerheads run our filtration. They run the flow in our tank to get waste to our filtration. They can often help off-gas waste by disturbing the air/water interface (break the surface of the water).

They are easy to maintain. I'm just curious how often everyone is doing this maintenance.

 

I end up cleaning mine every-other water change, so every two weeks. I don't like seeing the powerheads(when dirty) in the tank against the black background. So every so often I will take out the powereheads and clean them off under the sink water.

 

We clean our powerheads in a vinegar bath at least once a month and the return pumps get cleaned in a vinegar bath at least once every 3 months. Just like Seano, we are a little obsessive about having our tank clean. We even have a mag float in the fuge and that gets cleaned on a weekly basis.

 

I'm bad at this, they get cleaned when they stop working.:-[

Sometimes they get lucky and I get after them if the look horrible.

 

My situation

I have 4 power heads/ wavemakers and they are all in various stages of cleanliness

I selected the 3 month option, because I tend to remove 1, clean it and replace that
at water change time
and then a couple of weeks later do the same with another 1
always selecting the one that looks the dirtiest at that stage - so naturally the one that has been in longest between cleanings



Steve

 

mine get cleaned when I do a major overhaul or they stop working.

 

Results are going to vary on this one. Now that I'm better at maintaining my tanks, the powerheads don't accumulate much. The fish tanks get zero growth on them, so they don't get cleaned ummm....ever. The reef powerheads get cleaned maybe every six months. Usually when I have absolutely nothing else to do.

 

I really don't do mine on a schedule. I have found that running a powerhead in a bucket filled with half tapwater and half vinegar every 6 months or so will keep the Calcium deposits off of the the impeller magnet. 4 or 5 hours seems to do it.