Vinegar Soak: Powerheads

[steve]

I've been meaning to clean my powerhead off as I've had some bubble aglae, and a few strands of hair algae and a ton of coralline, so what am I better off doing? A vinegar soak or just bleaching them? and for how long? Will it take everything off of it etc, etc.

Thanks

Steve

 

[steve]

Are these the kinda titles you want Linda?:yes:

 

[mvm]

Vinegar. It softens the coralline so much that you can literally scrape it off with your finger. I soak in 100% vinegar for about 30 minutes that clean with my wife's toothbrush! :lol2:

 

[steve]

Hmmm... okay, I may just do that tonight, I did a mixture of the two, but bubble algae and stuff still won't come off. ****it. stupid buble algae. I guess off to use more vinegar.

 

[tommygunn17]

when I have soaked my powerheads, it has assisted the process of cleaning but it it has also turned all the coraline build up white.

 

[dmahoney82]

When cleaning my powerheads I take a large container that all the powerheads will fit into and fill it with hot water and vinegar. I plug the pumps in and let them run for a hour or so. Works like a champ everytime

 

[dmahoney82]

The white is the calcium

 

[triga22]

I soak my powerheads in vinegar overnight and then wash them in water. They look like new when they come out.

 

[steve]

I heard if you leave the powerheads in vinegar too long it will de-polarize the magnet or something causing it to run in reverse or something?

 

[mvm]

That's crazy. Not sure it's true ot not. 30 minutes in pure vinegar does the trick. Grab an old toothbrush, or your roommates if you don't like him and it scrubs right off.

 

[steve]

I'll just get a new one out of the drawer haha, I'm gonna just soak em for an hour and let it run in the bucket of pure vinegar and hopefully have it running in the morning. Do I just need to rinse it off with some water afterwards or... what?

 

[triga22]

Steve;221681 wrote: I heard if you leave the powerheads in vinegar too long it will de-polarize the magnet or something causing it to run in reverse or something?

Never heard of this, but it seems impossible. I may be wrong. The results I got from 12 hours was nothing on them. 30 min had not much of anything gone.

 

[mvm]

I usually soak, scrub, and then run in RO water for a few minutes. The only thing vinegar would do in small amonts would lower the PH slightly

 

[triga22]

Steve;221688 wrote: I'll just get a new one out of the drawer haha, I'm gonna just soak em for an hour and let it run in the bucket of pure vinegar and hopefully have it running in the morning. Do I just need to rinse it off with some water afterwards or... what?

Yes rinse it in water, I actually let mine turned on in a bucket of water for an hour, I am little bit of a freak when it comes to chemicals. But a rinse will be fine.

 

[steve]

I'm gonna leave them running for an hour and if nothing after that, I'll unplug it and go to sleep, if something acts up, I'll just go buy a new one and upgrade, I need a bigger one anyway... or maybe I'll just upgrade the return pump... Mag 9.5... on a 30 cube.... haha

 

[steve]

Okay, thanks for the help guys!

 

[mvm]

TriGa22;221690 wrote: Never heard of this, but it seems impossible. I may be wrong. The results I got from 12 hours was nothing on them. 30 min had not much of anything gone.

You must be diluting it or not using a toothbrush. I guess if you soak long enough, it will fall off, but I like to get them back in the tank asap. 30 minutes will soften the coralline enough that it comes off very easily.

 

[steve]

I'll just leave it for an hour and if I can't get it off, I'll just leave it soaking. I can always drop the Mag 9.5 in the sump and see what happens, but I think that's a project for Friday. Maybe add this to the Wiki or whatever...

 

[triga22]

No dilluting. I just remembered I also took them out and put them in a container of vinegar just enought to cover the powerhead. Got the baking soda out and that ripped it apart SPOTLESS!

 

[steve]

What's the baking soda for?