Cleaning overflow?

[tweetyfish]

I have been having some problems with NO3 being a little on the high side lately and was wondering if anyone cleans out their overflows, I have a 180 w/ duel overflow's set up for about 3 years and I bet their is a lot of waste built up in them.
Should they be cleaned out as part of the routine when doing water changes?

Thanks
Tony

 

[kraze3]

you could scrub it with an old toothbrush. You could also soak in vinegar. I wouldnt clean it weekly but I bet it needs a cleaning every few months just to get the build up out.

 

[THE ROOK]

You could scrub with a some sort of long brush. Maybe an algea scrubber. Then take some 1/2" hose & siphon out the overflow. If real grungy, maybe refill with vinagar/water & soak for awhile then siphon again.

 

[tweetyfish]

I had a feeling this is something that I should have been doing all along.

 

[heap]

i consider the overflow boxes on my 240 to essentially be miniature refugiums. somehow, a brittle starfish has made his way into one of them and has grown massive, but there are thousands of dusters, worms, pods, sponges, etc living it up in there.

it probably wouldn't hurt to drop a line in and siphon the bottom, there is about a quarter inch layer of funk that's accumulated in 2 years...but i doubt i'd be inclined to drain/scrape the walls down or anything.

 

[jayk198030]

i clean mine every 3 months or so and dump it into my sump. i siphon both of my overflows. you do gather a nice amount of critters in there, so why waste.

 

[MplsMan]

i had the same problem till i made covers from blue acrilic and it blocks all the light from letting alge grow in the over flow.
also works for keeping fish from jumping into it.
never had a problem since.