Cleaning Tip! Attn. all you Baster hand feeders!!!

[Reef_Angel]

After cleaning out the bulbs on all my basters that I use for hand feeding coral, I got to wondering how many of you do this daily! If you haven't been doing it, simply suck up some hot water, shake, rub the bulb together between your palms, shake some more, and then dump it out and repeat until the water runs clear! You'll be amazed at the black crud that comes out of the bulb. You'll find if you've never cleaned the bulb of your baster that you'll have to repetitively do this until it's clean. You can do this 3 or more times with each bulb, and you'll still keep pulling out gobs of gunk. You'd never even know it's in there when you're feeding, until you tip your baster back once while you're feeding and you start noticing black flakes coming out along with the food you're feeding. I cleaned mine 3 days ago, and decided it was time again, and even in that short of time there was quite a bit of buildup in the bulb.

We don't often talk about keeping our tools we work with clean, and sometimes grab one that's been sitting for weeks. Imagine what you are introducing into your tank! The bacteria has to be awful! So this is just a reminder to all reefers, to have a designated jug where you can keep your tools soaking in some kind of a net soak solution. At least when you grab a tool, it will be clean. I happen to have Kent- Pro Net on hand this time, but I'm sure any good product will do the job. The little bit of the product & water on the tool is non toxic, but I'd still use caution not to get a lot of it in your tank. I hope this is a useful tip to everyone! ...Angel :angel1:

[mutts]

OMG! I have never even thought about cleaning it out! I make sure there is nothing stuck on the inside of the tube but never in the bulb. thanks for the tip angel!!!!!

[Sweetpea]

WOW! You are SO right! I noticed gunk coming out the last time I fed, but it was the first time I had tipped it back... I had dropped my hand towel and tipped it back while I bent over to get the towel... it was SO gross! I had no idea that much goo went into the bulb like that! Thank you for posting this! :-)

[Reef_Angel]

No problem! It was something I noticed, and I consider myself to be a very clean reef keeper. When I saw this stuff, I was so ashamed of myself for not thinking of cleaning those basters. Sometimes we suck up the remains of dead stuff and everything.

There are so many other things that got me thinking. If you have a hang on skimmer and you find it's time to dump the collection cup, also take the time to clean the filter and change the carbon if you haven't done it recently. If it hasn't been that long, just insure that you rinse your media bags and/or replace them at the same time. I would also encourage cleaning your skimmer from top to bottom at least once a month also.

Then another thought popped into my head. How often do you take apart and clean your power heads? You can't imagine the crud that builds up in those things as well. A symptom of a clogged power head is noticing it spewing out micro bubbles. Food's build up in the little filters inside, it decomposes and just seals off the little filter inside. I bet some people don't even realize that there is a little filter pad inside their power heads. They actually come apart pretty easily. Look at them closely and you'll see how they slide apart. If you can't figure it out, maybe you still have on hand the paperwork that came with it that shows how to clean them. I've just started a monthly schedule between the skimmer & the power heads. I choose that time to be when I'm doing a thorough tank cleanup with a water change.

I decided to post some of these tips that I've found to be reoccurring normal issues when I take care of my tanks. I think everyone should add anything helpful that might help another user. I challenge anyone else to add some more helpful everyday practices! Share your tips and tricks everyone! This could pose to be an interesting thread! :o

[AuntKaren]

I haven't really been in this hobby long enough to do this but seeing your post, Angel, I think that a "checklist" or maintenance schedule would be a great post! We could copy and paste it to our own document file, print it out and check off what we have done! Is there anyone who would want to post a maintenance checklist?

Angel, you really get people to thinkin'!

[Reef_Angel]

I think this may be the best way to get a checklist together. If any of you have cleaned out your basters, I'll bet you were shocked at the scum that has accumulated in the bulb. Bacteria City! I think it's a good idea if everyone out there has something they do to keep their tank a little cleaner here and there, we could all benefit from it. If I come up with more thoughts, I'll be sure to post them. So join in everyone. What do you do special that makes you feel good about how you care for your tank? Food for thought!
.....Angel :angel1: