White gunk came out of my Eheim

[neurotik]

So I was doing my weekly water change and what not, and I decided to change out the fine filter pad (white pad) in my Eheim Ecco 2236 while I was at it, since I've had it for several months now and it was completely saturated with brown gunk. Changing it definitely helped a lot -- I have a much stronger flow now than I did before, and I also notice that it is running much quieter than it was before, so that's good.

Now for the not so good -- when I went to start my filter back up, I reconnected both of the hoses and I pulled the handle down to start it priming and filling with water, and then when I lifted the handle back up which forced some air/water out of my outlet hose, a whole ton of this white stuff came shooting out along with it. It resembled little peices of cottom or snowy looking stuff. Was that just stuff that was built up in my hose, and when I forced the water through my hose during the priming it shot a bunch of it out or what? It didn't seem to harm my fish and most of it has already either settled to the bottom or has been filtered out by one of my filters and the water looks pretty good again. I just wish I had known about this happening so I could have done it before I did my 50% water change, lol.

 

[jessicasmarine]

I have the same problem on my sump return hose on occasion. I think its just a build up from something in the water stuck to the hosing lining. When it happens I just wait an hour and then clean off the filter pad in my wet dry. It will usually all be collected there by then

 

[neurotik]

Next time I have to turn off my filter for whatever reason and prime it again, I may prime with the intake/outtake in a bucket of old tank water or something first, and let all of that stuff shoot out, then put it back into my tank and start it up.

 

[jessicasmarine]

One time I used a six inch net with a square of filter floss and just held it over the outtake for a few minutes it caught most of it. To make it clear out faster I started at the bottom of the hose and squeezed it all the way up- an inch at a time to break it all loose. But I still dont know the root of the problem.

 

[neurotik]

That's a good idea too -- putting something over the outtake. I may just do that instead next time. Well that's all I needed, I just wanted to make sure other people have experienced the same sort of thing and I didn't have something horrible that just sprayed all into my tank, lol.

 

[InfernoST]

I had a similar thing happen twice with my 2215 and traced it to the build up in the hoses. I clean the hoses now once every month and half to 2 months and haven't noticed it since I started this regiment.

 

[neurotik]

How do you go about cleaning the hoses? Do you just unhook them and then run some sort of brush attached to a string through them? Or do you flush them out with water somehow or what?

 

[InfernoST]

How do you go about cleaning the hoses? Do you just unhook them and then run some sort of brush attached to a string through them? Or do you flush them out with water somehow or what?

They sell long hose cleaners(Fluval Hose Brush), if your tubing is long you can drop a weighted line through the hose and tie one end to the tag end then another one to the brush side this will allow you to pull the hose cleaner back and forth. Naturally use plenty of water and if you can do it outside because a lot of nasty stuff comes out, then run fresh water through it and you're done.

 

[neurotik]

Cool deal. I may try that next weekend during my maintenance stuff. Hopefully it will be nice outside and I can take the tubing outside.

 

[InfernoST]

Cool deal. I may try that next weekend during my maintenance stuff. Hopefully it will be nice outside and I can take the tubing outside.

When I first did it on my 2215 about 14 years ago I wound up with a face full of nasty indescribable stuff, expect to get dirty (Hopefully not and if so not that bad).

Take care man.