cleaning out chiller and chiller lines

[speedbump]

i am seeing build up inside my chiller tubing and can only assume there is also some in the chiller itself. the tubing i can just pitch and buy new. but how would i clean out the inside of the machine? it doens't look like stuff that could just be rinsed out.

[Phixion]

First I'd ask if you're using clear or black tubing?? With black, algae accumulation is little to none since no light can get through. With that said, you CAN still accumlate ogranic crap in the chiller. I discovered this when I recently moved and blew the excess water out of the chiller for transport, and all this nasty black crap spewed out from the return line and it seriously smelled worse than rotten eggs, coarl death and clam death combined! Good thing I was moving out because that apartment stank afterwards... Anyways, I haven't yet flushed it out, but I plan to set up a small bucket with vinegar and run the pump I used with the chiller submerged in the vinegar for a few hours cycling it through the chiller. This should for sure clean up any excess crap that's built up inside.

[speedbump]

First I'd ask if you're using clear or black tubing?? With black, algae accumulation is little to none since no light can get through. With that said, you CAN still accumlate ogranic crap in the chiller. I discovered this when I recently moved and blew the excess water out of the chiller for transport, and all this nasty black crap spewed out from the return line and it seriously smelled worse than rotten eggs, coarl death and clam death combined! Good thing I was moving out because that apartment stank afterwards... Anyways, I haven't yet flushed it out, but I plan to set up a small bucket with vinegar and run the pump I used with the chiller submerged in the vinegar for a few hours cycling it through the chiller. This should for sure clean up any excess crap that's built up inside.

 

the tubing i am using is transparent but dark gray. when i look at it with a light i can see little strings of that i think is algae. a little bit of stuff does come out of the return over a period of time.

 

will a vinegar flush clear out any growth that has accumulated inside the chiller? my tank is experiencing a limited amount of some sort of algae that grows in dark areas and i assume its possible something could be growing in the chiller as well.

[kgross]

Do a 2 part cleaning. Use some bleach to oxides the organics, then some vineger incase any caco3 has build up from organic processes. Then use some dechlorinator to make sure the bleach is nutrialized.

 

Mix the bleach in a 4:1 ratio with water, same for the vinegar.

 

Kim