My eheim hoses were absolutely filthy before running this brush a couple times through them to clean out all the gunk.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0126416XW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

My eheim hoses were absolutely filthy before running this brush a couple times through them to clean out all the gunk.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0126416XW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So were those clear Eheim tubes or the green ones? If clear, did they look more or less "new" after the the brushing?


roud: roud: Also double plus thumbs up for the Smile links. We support a local dog rescue through Smile. It's not a lot, but I know we've helped buy a few big bags of food at least over the years.

Bump:

My original plan was to replace the green/grey tubing that came with my Oase filter with clear tubing. As I am mostly buying online these days I ordered some 5/8" ID clear tubing from Marine Depot. It was a 10 foot piece and came coiled in a bag with 8 kinks in it. They refunded my money once I sent them a photo but I am sure that they shipped it out that way.

There seems to be a choice of either thin wall that kinks or thick wall that is hard to bend and will put pressure on your lily pipes. For now I am sticking with the stock grey tubing and bought a long pipe cleaning brush.

If you order tubing be sure to get the correct ID. I was careless and made one purchase which ended up being the OD measurement.

BTW. Many here have recommended tubing from Home Depot or Lowes.

In all of my googles, not once did the Oase tubing show up. As soon as I put them into the search, boom, there it is. Seems about same price online as the Shiruba.


Thanks!!

 

My original plan was to replace the green/grey tubing that came with my Oase filter with clear tubing. As I am mostly buying online these days I ordered some 5/8" ID clear tubing from Marine Depot. It was a 10 foot piece and came coiled in a bag with 8 kinks in it. They refunded my money once I sent them a photo but I am sure that they shipped it out that way.

There seems to be a choice of either thin wall that kinks or thick wall that is hard to bend and will put pressure on your lily pipes. For now I am sticking with the stock grey tubing and bought a long pipe cleaning brush.

If you order tubing be sure to get the correct ID. I was careless and made one purchase which ended up being the OD measurement.

BTW. Many here have recommended tubing from Home Depot or Lowes.

 

There seems to be a choice of either thin wall that kinks or thick wall that is hard to bend and will put pressure on your lily pipes. For now I am sticking with the stock grey tubing and bought a long pipe cleaning brush.

I had immense pressure on my glass lily pipes with my Oase gray tubing at first. I still have the gray tubing. I do like that it mutes algae presence buying me a bit of time for a good spring brush cleaning. To facilitate spring brush cleaning, I purchased the Eheim double stops for disconnecting my hoses mid-way (I don't dare remove the tubing from the glass lily pipes, too much chance for breakage). Anyway, secret benefit of the double stops is they too eliminate pressure on the hoses and allow me to effectively coil them where I couldn't do that before.

 

Although I now have only a filter return tube (black) and a surface skimmer (black) visible in my tank, as far as paraphernalia go, I've used many types of clear and colored tubes, parts and flexible tubing. Whenever possible, I use black. It hides dirt and algae better than any other color or clear. In the case of clear flexible tubing and suction pads, they are usually made of polymers that turn bright white in water, making it the worst of all.

If you want the look of clear in your lily pipes, any that are removable will be easy to clean. I also happen to have the brush mentioned by @808style and it is a good one. There are many like it which will work as well. The exterior of parts are usually the more difficult cleaning areas. Microfiber pads are an improvement over other materials. However, soaking the parts in standard 3% H2O2 overnight will turn any algae to mush and make brushing it off under running water a simple thing.

 

For my sump returns I used the Home Depot clear tubing . The lines are 6ft long . To clean them I took a piece of house wiring and cut to about 6 ft and pulled the black wire out of it . I made a small hook on the end of it . I slide the hook end through the tube and hook a brush to the end and then pull it brush and all back out . Once usually works , but not hard to do multiple times . I do this in the kitchen sink and run water through the tube as I do it . Also these tubes do not turn milky after being in water .

 

Hi, similar build to what I am trying to do. I currently have the Lifegard 17, really nice! But I have a HOB filter and want to switch to a canister and lily pipes. I posted a question asking for recommendations. I thought I would get the Fluval 207, but the tubing says it is 14.5 mm so I a thoroughly confused now. I considered the Oase filter, but there were so many concerns about bubbles. Mourip, how is your filter doing and which lily pipe did you use?

I don't mind the black ribbed hose if it is easier to clean, but don't know which lily intake and output pipes would be best and would fit. I have no patience for leaks!!

 

I have the Biomaster Thermo 250. I have a Jardli 5/8" glass lily pipe outlet and a FZONE Aquatic 5/8" Glass Lily Pipe Inflow with Surface Skimmer. I use an inline CO2 diffuser. I did add an external controller for the heater. Except for the last tray, I replaced the Oase filter tray foam with various biomedia and drilled some extra holes in the prefilter intake pipe. I have plenty of flow for my 25 gallon tank. The fish surf the lily pipe output!

Regarding bubbles. I am careful to adjust my skimmer so that no air gets pulled in. Whenever I remove the pre-filter for cleaning I burp the filter as I restart the pump. You just need to tip it in all 4 directions until the bubbles stop. Once burped there is no gurgling. I think that early pumps had air leaks that caused bubbles but that has been remedied. I do have some hum to get rid of but it is just vibration from the tubing touching the cabinet.

I am very happy with this setup.

 

Opaque black is best, you can’t see biofilm inside and lack of light prevents algae from growing. Don’t want to see hoses coming up behind tank, well you should have a opaque background on tank anyway. Doesn’t matter what color it is, get some .125” pvc and some spray paints and do a gradient fade of any color you like.

Only part of return or intake for canister you should see is what comes over the tank rim inside tank. Sorry but these but these clear glass pipes on clear glass on back look like crap after only 2weeks, who wants to have to clean inside of their aquarium plumbing every 2 weeks to keep it looking good. Cleaning inside aquarium is time consuming enough.

I really wish they would take those stainless attachments and lengthen the downpipes so all you can see behind tank is a stainless pipe behind clear glass, I like those stainless attachments look a lot.. Probably a little smooth flow S elbow as it crosses stand level. All you would see through back glass is a opaque piece of stainless tubing, not the crud growing inside of it. Of coarse being opaque stainless there would be way less algae/crud growing in tube to begin with.

There I’ve finished my rant, glass pipes are the devil and meant for narcissistic posers.

 

I wanted clear hose with glass pipes at first too. I also ended up with the soft hose that kinks too easy so now I'm again running new hose from Oase. It's not the cleaning that gets me it's, as some of you say above, the rigidity (or lack there of) that irritates me.

There I’ve finished my rant, glass pipes are the devil and meant for narcissistic posers.

Hahahahaha! I resemble that remark! >

 

What type of background do you have on the back wall of the tank. I always use translucent background. To make the pipes invisible at the back I prefer clear tubes. I clean the tubes regularly. The clear tubes look better IMHO if you keep them clean.

 

I am not sure what yet because I don't know where I am placing the tank yet. It could be kind of in the middle of my office in which case I probably would not put a background on it. If it ends up against a wall, then I will probably mask the back.


I ended up just getting some clear tubing for now. If it turns out to be a PITA, then it's easy enough to swap to a darker or opaque tubing I guess.

 

If your going with a rimless tank the only way to go is clear tubing with lily pipes, otherwise your defeating the minimalist look of the rimless.

Tubing is very easy to clean with a brush. It takes 10 seconds. My lily pipe return you could clean while attached to the tank by inserting brush into open mouth area, So the only thing you need to take off the tank is the intake and clean wiith a brush and/or bleach mix. Good to have two sets incase of breakage or if you don't want to clean right away.

 

I like the 2 sets of pipes to swap idea!!

 

Hmm, I did manage to find the 13/17mm larger size eheim disconnects for about $22 each, so $44 or so for a pair. I have them mounted mid-line. My Oase sits on the floor to the left of my stand (visible). It's not ideal, but it's also not an ugly piece of equipment. This makes maintenance on the prefilter much much easier.

Anyway, mine are mounted mid-line, just below the height of the glass. This lets me use about a 48" spring brush with no problem on both 'halves' of my filter lines. The eheim disconnects have a ridiculous center-brace in them negating the use of a spring brush from that end, but it's no big deal, I just disconnect half the eheim stop valve from the tubing for cleaning, then reconnect.

 

Thanks for the details.

My Oase Biomaster 250 uses 16/22 tubing. The Eheim 16/22 (5/8") disconnects are unfortunately twice as expensive as your 13/17 (1/2").

 

i have dis-connects on everything since I have only eheims, but I still remove the tubing from the intake pipe. I actually get more nervous running the brush through the tubing and all the way through the intake curve in terms of breakage since it's hard to pull it out.

If not aware never twist or bend the tubing to remove it, just push straight in toward the pipe. That breaks the suction and it comes right off. Never broke one yet doing it that way.

 

So I was lazy last time and going from memory. I looked at my order history and ordered these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SISBK3C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which worked with my Oase BioMaster 600 Thermo just fine, with stock gray hosing.

 

Could these work:
https://www.marinedepot.com/delta-quick-release-double-tap-valves-12-16mm-ultum-nature-systems

How are you liking the Oase? I was thinking about one or the UNS Delta for a 17 gallon.

 

Being able to make my own Inlet and outlet has been Fun. I was able to replace the Green or Black attachments that came with the canister filters. Its fun to make, way cheaper than glass lily pipes, and if you break them you can make an other one in 15 -20 minutes.

 

USA tubing from home depot or lowes will be 1/2" ID or 3/4" Inner Diameter (ID) and either way too skinny or way too fat OD. You can go the way too skinny route (like I did) and fuss around with the canister connectors popping off and flooding your aquarium cabinet when you mess with them, or pay an extra $10 and order the proper metric sized tubing off of amazon (which I also eventually did). *ugh*

Clear or opaque, you are gonna have to clean those lines to get the best performance out of your canister filter. It is shocking how much flow decreases from build up in the pipes. If you have an inline CO2 diffuser or CO2 reactor, decreased flow is going to mess with your CO2 injection rate. Which causes more problems. Booo!

Sooo... lowest maintenance - super dark tubes, in-tank CO2 diffuser stone.

Otherwise, get a good pipebrush, lube your lily pipes with silicone oil at the tube connection point to reduce the trauma of getting those suckers off without breaking them, and make the commitment to clean the everything bi-monthly. (Also - little suction cups with zip ties to keep your tubes in place will be your best friends.)