Canister Filter Tubing

[Trickerie]

So, I didn't know any better when I set up my canister, and didn't wrap the tubing at all. The tube walls are now pretty grimy with what I can only guess is algae. I heard you are supposed to wrap the tubes in electrical tape or get opaque tubing to stop this. What should I do, replace the tubing with wrapped/black tubing?

[gomesj]

Do nothing. You will get build up of debris regardless. You just need to use a flexible brush and clean them from time to time.

[TwoTacoCombo]

I don't believe the gunk that forms in there is algae. The entire length of all of my tubes on all of my filters is covered with the build up, even the sections that spend 99% of the time in darkness inside the enclosed tank stands. It's more likely bacterial growth, which isn't harmful.

[Trickerie]

Good idea with the flexible brush. I'll have to do that every time I clean the canister from now on. When I primed, it spit a bunch of stuff out of the tubes from the bubbles dislodging it. Ugh. Looks like debris that was picked up but wasn't fine enough to get sucked into the canister, so it just sits in the lines.

[PlantedRich]

I find the brush is a problem sometimes so I go DIY. I tie a small weight like a small bolt on string and drop it through, then tie a small rag in the middle of the string. From there I tie the string on something solid and "saw" the rag back and forth through the tubing until it is clean. I like to see through the tubing so I can tell how often to clean it. About once a year gets it for me.

[Diana]

Weed eater line or a wire coat hanger (unbent) can also be used to pass through the tubing, then pull a sponge or cloth back and forth as suggested by PlantedRich. I had only one set of tubing that actually grew algae. And that was diatoms, aka brown algae. That filter was next to a window so the tubing got a bit of light. All the others have dirt of some sort that clings.

[Complexity]

I never clean mine. Some get really grungy while some do not. Every now and then, staring up a canister might blow out some crud, but it's usually coming from a dirty spray bar, not the tubing. The fish actually eat the stuff coming out (never seems to hurt them) and then it gets cleaned up by the filters in just a few minutes. So it's never that big of a deal.