well, that was a process;-(…

cleaning the pumps is not one of my favourite jobs, but I have gotten pretty good with it now that I have no choice, lol…

both tanks were getting murky which is the sign that the entire pump needs to be cleaned… that means the tube and the three different filters in each pump…

yucky, but necessary to get done… small one went fine… I don’t even make a face when I am rinsing them by hand whereas before I wouldn’t even consider touching them…

those big girl pants…

when I dealt with the big pump it was cleaned and put back without any issues…

but, when I plugged it back in nothing happened, sigh…

tried plugging it into a few other outlets, but no luck… brought it back into the kitchen, dumped the water out of it and removed the actual pump, which is quite tiny…

then I took the two pieces apart, used a Q-tip to clean both and rinsed it out without getting the outside of it wet…

got it back together, plugged it in and it worked, phew… when the pumps stop working it is rather worrisome because there is the concern about the stress on the fish in the tank…

now to see how long it takes to clear up the water and get rid of the murkiness…