# Cleaning plumbing



## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

I am curious to know how others clean the plumbing in their saltwater tanks, if at all. How often?

For example, say someone has a sump, UV, and other bells and whistles, all connected through a nice hard-plumbed pipe system. Reef-ready tank, with durso standpipe in the overflow(s). What a pain that all must be to disassemble! I'm curious to know how, and how often, such a setup would/should be cleaned?


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

vinegar is great! just if your cleaning hydor Ks remove the suction cup as the vinegar will make that soft and not as good as it was previous.

i also added some unions to my plumbing when i did my tank this way i can easily uncrew parts and pieces when needed. 

i clean them when the time calls for it if that helps


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

do you have anything that you snake through the pipes? Or just run water/vinegar through them? By using unions, can you completely disassemble your plumbing, or only sections? If parts, how do you clean the parts that are fixed/fastened in-place? And finally, how do you know "when the time calls for it"?

As much detail as possible will help me and any other readers who are interested in this topic :-D


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

i have a union to remove my pump from my sump, i take it out, uncrew it off my mag9.5, i have an extra mag9 that i replace it with and soak the pump in vinegar to clean it then i rinse it with RO water and put it away until next time. i can remove sections with the unions and some parts are screwed together so i can remove them. stomatalla snails are all over everything so i pick off as many as possible then ill rinse the plumbing in the sink and let it completely dry then replace. i really cant give you a time frame, i just do it hear and there lol, you'll also know if something is clogged where your going to have to clean it. ive had a snail crawl down my durso and get stuck in 1 - 90 degree fitting i had, by the time i realized something was stuck the snail was already dead but it was hard to even notice something was caught because my plumbing splits going to either end of the sump.


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