We use various sized Hagen powerheads in our tanks ever since we began reefkeeping. Because we don't have skimmers on our current three tanks, we also have prefilters filled with foam on each powerhead for extra crud removal. And we remove
tons of crud from the foams weekly
Because I'm such a clean freak, each week we remove all the powerheads during water changes, break them down and clean the foams and powerhead parts in changewater. I don't know if they are easy to break down, clean then put back together because I've been doing it for so long, or if they are actually easy to break down and put back together
Anyway, over the last month, we've been pressed for time on our normal tank cleaning day, so we only removed the prefilter and cleaned the cruddy foams. Today, after a month without cleaning the entire powerheads, I broke them all down as usual, but was disgusted at how dirty the parts had become
Cleaning took twice as long. The impeller shafts were extremely dirty, which I believe impairs the performance of any powerhead, Hagen or not.