[~SHAWNA~]

About a week ago, I asked the question of what to do about the black/brown GUNK that has accumulated in my gravel vac hose. Not an uncommon thing to happen. Gunky water gets trapped, mold developes. And how difficult it can be to get at the gunk that has decided to make the tube its permanent home! It was suggested that I use a deluted beach solution. Well if you, like me, are not fond of working with the chemicals in dire fear of not having rinsed it out well enough :krazy: then this is the solution for you! And why buy a new one, when your old one is still shiny and new beneath all that gunk!!

The simple answer?? A straightened metal coat hanger! Straighten it to the best of your ability, but dont worry about any small bends and kinks. They just add to the simplicity of cleaning! Now once you have the hanger straight, thread it into your tubing, being sure to pass the wire end over any gunk that you see! Once you think youve got most of the grime scraped, run some water through it under your faucet. You'll be just amazed at what comes out. :P If the hanger doesn't reach all the way to the end of your tubing, turn the tubing over, and repeat!.

Anyway, to make a long story short and end my "infomercial" ;) , it works really really well. I actually even suprised myself at how well. I wont be making the same mistake of letting the gunk build up. It shall be hung up from the middle with the ends draping down to the floor from now on!!

:) Happy Cleaning!

[d_golem]

A suggestion that might increase the effectiveness of the coat-hanger cleaner ;) how about wrapping the coat hanger with piece of tea towel? more surface area=more gunk.
or maybe make a loop at the end of the hanger, so u can scrape the gunk more easily :lol:

[~SHAWNA~]

That would be a good idea for those that have a bigger hose. Also, you could try wrapping a peice of the flat retangular scrubby pads around and securing it with duct tape. That would work good too.

See my hose is about the diameter of a pencil, so the coat hanger does just nicely. :D

[d_golem]

See my hose is about the diameter of a pencil, so the coat hanger does just nicely.  :D
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Ah I see :D

[tinkerbell]

nice tip :)

[balashark]

great tip. my hose is pretty thick so i usually take a pipe cleaner and make a 'ball' at one end. then i just have to pass the hanger through a couple times and it gets the tube clean and dry.

i always hung all mine up, but it still seemed to get a little greenish on the inside (especially the siphon for my goldie tank, more algae); so now i run it through after each cleaning just to dry it out.

[Persimmon]

Clean pantyhose can be wrapped on the end of anything like this to produce a good scrub. Best part, it is so thin it will work in most size tubing. Or you can just placea ball of the pantyhose inside and push it back and forth with the clothes hanger, etc.