- Cleaning pumps and other equipment
is just a normal part
of keeping a reef tank.
Dirty powerheads push a lot less water
than they would if they were clean.
But what's the best way
to clean a dirty pump?
Is vinegar the old standby?
Is that the best option you've got?
It's certainly easily available,
but did you know that
it's actually eating away
the plastics and the seals and
O-rings and things like that
inside your pump, the same
time that it's cleaning off
all that coral and algae?
Hi, guys and girls, I'm ReefMan
and this is all about cleaning
dirty reef tank equipment
like this VorTech Powerhead.
It's true, vinegar is a
weak, easy to get acid,
but it also attacks plastics and rubber,
slowly but surely breaking
down important mechanical parts
in your equipment while it's cleaning it.
There are other options,
things like hydrochloric acid
or muriatic acid or citric acid.
These can be used instead,
and neither of those
are going to attack the plastic
like a acidic acid would.
Vinegar, that's a acidic acid,
is classified as a weak acid.
That just means that the chemicals in it,
acidic acid molecules don't break apart
or a disassociate when
you mix it into water
or at least not entirely.
There's still a bunch
of acidic acid molecules
just sort of floating around in the water
and those molecules get into
an attack a lot of things
beyond just calcium deposits.
In fact, have you ever used
vinegar with latex gloves?
Notice how your hands smell
like vinegar afterwards?
Well, acidic acid is able
to get through latex.
If you use nitrile gloves,
your hands won't smell
like vinegar anymore.
That same incompatibility
can take place in the plastic
and rubber parts of our equipment,
slowly but surely weakening them,
causing tiny fractures and
more wear and tear over time,
and those, all that water in eventually.
On the other end of the spectrum,
we have strong acids
like that muriatic acid,
and those compounds almost
entirely disassociate
when they get mixed with water.
In fact, there's very little
hydrochloric acid molecules left
if you mix it into enough water,
it'll break down into
the hydrogen chlorine
that it mix it up.
A dilution of hydrochloric
acid at a one to 10 ratio
will clean your equipment
much faster than vinegar,
and it'll do it without
hurting the plastic
or rubber parts inside your equipment.
You can buy hydrochloric acid
at your local hardware store.
It's sold to etch and clean concrete.
You'll see it in gallon
jugs like that one I had,
is under the name muriatic acid.
A gallon of that hardware store acid
is going to make 10 gallons of cleaner.
So a little bit will go a long way.
Do be careful of fumes that are going
to come off acid like this.
They're literally acid gas.
So don't breathe them in.
If you do breathe them in, it's
bad news, get to fresh air.
If you do have any problems,
call your poison control center.
Mix your cleaning solution
outside because of those vapors
and wear gloves and eye
protection when you're doing it.
Do be careful also not
to splash it on you.
You're going to have
holes in your clothes,
things like that and of course,
it's going to hurt if
you get it on your skin.
So do please be careful if
you're using a strong acid
like hydrochloric acid
to clean your equipment.
Another safer option that
you've got is citric acid.
It's not nearly as
dangerous as muriatic acid,
and it's just as easy to mix.
You just take a cup of the acid powder,
a gallon of water,
mix it up, it's ready to go.
That mixture is also safe for the plastic
and rubber parts of your pump,
but it's going to make very short work
of the calcium deposits,
much faster than vinegar,
because it's a stronger
concentration than the vinegar.
You can buy as citric acid
powder online, pretty cheaply,
or you can just get it from
your grocery store often.
Online, it might actually be
called anhydrous citric acid.
Don't be worried, that's just means
that there's no water in it.
I have used hydrochloric acid
to clean my equipment for years.
It works very well and
it's not hard to treat it
with a little respect, and
take some basic precautions
with it and you'll be fine.
If you're worried at all, though,
please just use citric acid.
It's going to be a lot more forgiving.
And to be honest,
I'll probably say citric
acid at some point.
Both of these compounds are
going to be a lot better
on your equipment than
that vinegar that you may
have been using in the past.
And also both will keep your house
from smelling like a pickle factory.
So that's it for this video.
Don't forget to subscribe
if you haven't already.
Get out there and clean all
your aquarium equipment.
I really did mean it at
the beginning of the video,
a clean pump moves a lot
more water than a dirty one.
Have a fantastic day, stay safe.
I'll see you next time, bye.
