Cleaning Chiller to Reduce Nitrates?

[myfast]

Hello,

I'm trying to clean up all potential sources of nitrates in my tank. I've had my chiller a little over two years and I've never flushed it out. Do you think there could be a good amount of detritus settled in my chiller that could be adding to nitrates? Would back flushing it with water and/or vinegar help? My chiller is working fine, so I wouldn't be doing this for performance reasons, just to clean it out. It's a bit of a challenge to take the chiller offline, so I wanted to see if cleaning it would be worth it. Thanks!

[HighlandReefer]

Have you looked inside the water line going in and out of the chiller to see if debris has built-up in those line? If they are clear you can simply see build-up. If there is no debris in the water lines going in or out, I would suspect you have little in the chiller.

[myfast]

Thanks for your reply, HighlandReefer. I just checked. The tube going in is newer (just replaced at the beginning of the year) and is pretty clean, with just a small amount of detritus stuck to the inside of the tube. The one going out is the original tube, so a little more than 2 years old. It doesn't have a lot of visible detritus in it, but is yellowish in color. Maybe from algae?

Do you think the chiller needs to be flushed based on this information?

Thanks!

[HighlandReefer]

My guess that it is fine based on the tubing. ;)

[kgross]

I would agree it should not need flushing.

Kim

[rwb500]

build-up on tubing would not be a source of nitrates. not the kind of build-up that only needs cleaning once every two years.

[myfast]

Thanks! Not flushing it will save me some time and trouble.