Power head cleaning
 

Whats the best way to clean powerheads

Vinegar

+1 vinegar.
I just cleaned a pretty nasty Powerhead. I had to soak it in warm water and vinegar for a bit before I could even get it apart.

take it out and use a brush teeth :)

I have a 4L jug of vinegar that I use just for fish tank stuff. Soak the PH's in it for half an hour and that's usually good. Once I'm done soaking them and scrubbing them, I pour the vinegar back into the jug through a strainer and reuse it later.

I'd always just gave them a decent scrubbing with a toothbrush while rinsing them under the tap. I thought the trick was to maintain them every few months rather then letting them get really bad and then trying to correct the problem. I'm going to have to try the vinegar trick next time. How long do you generally soak them for?

Hydrogen peroxide works well too:)

Soaking in vinegar works for me.

I have an old salt bucket that I have in hand. I soak for 3-4 hours for really tough stuff.

Don't soak it for too long because it will eventually ruin them... We are talking days... Trust me...

Works wonders! Just brush them off and rinse after the vinegar soak!

I have a container that I fill with vinegar. I put my powerheads, anything plastic that needs to be cleaned into that and let it soak for about 30-45 min. It ends up looking pretty gross. Then I scrub with a toothbrush in the vinegar. I then scrub again and rinse under warm water. They come out looking brand new.

just buy a new one. If you're using vortechs, can buy the wet side cage replacements for $5. I stock up on them.

Where do you get the nozzle for $5.00 ?

Gregg, J&L sells all replacement parts for vortechs. You can buy the whole wet side of an mp40 for about 85 bucks, or just components of it.

I've bought MP10 wetsides from them for $58
But you said $5 for the cage ( nozzle )
I was just curious where you get one so cheap

the whole wetside assembly including the cage is about $85

you can buy just the plastic cage by itself for about 5 bucks

muriatic acid works really well, just need to be careful with it

I just run the power heads in very hot water in a bucket with a few cups of vinegar and they clean themselves , i put a lid on it and it will stay hot for almost 2 hours.

Water with bleach 1/2 hour, followed by 1/2 hour water with hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. No scrubbing involved, just run the powerhead in one solution, rinse if you feel like, than run it in the other one. Rinsing after HCl optional.