How often should these be pulled off and cleaned out??

My filter has been running for approx 2 months now and have noticed the hose's are quiet dirty. Can this be a problem? Or just when flow is restricted?

I have never ever pulled off and cleaned the hoses on any of my canister filters. They look dirty sure but they don't usually clog enough to restrict water flow.

I only clean the filter itself when water flow reduces and that can be as much as 3 or 4 times a year. My new Jebo ran 12 months before I had to clean it and that was several months ago.

Sometimes you will get plant (esp Java moss) jammed where the hose is connected to the filter so you may have to clear that out on occasion.

As above, never ever cleaned them.

What builds up is usually algae etc, I've never heard of it causing a blockage. You can cover the pipes in black tape if you don't want to see it (just make sure the black tape doesn't touch or come too close to the aquarium water) which will also kill the algae.

There are cleaning tools (pipe cleaners) available for this purpose, but there is no real reason to clean them. Only bit I used to clean occasionally is the spray bar, as bits of algae etc can jam up the small outlets eventually. I just shook it around in hot water.

The intake pipe on my eheim gets clogged every few months and I blow water through it to clean it because it restricts the flow. It is on a tank with three adult turtles and the filthy buggers produce a lot more waste than you would get on a tank with fish. I would keep an eye on it and clean as required but not just because it is there.

I clean mine out whenever I've feeling especially industrious...Usually about once a year. Hehehe. I haven't had the algae or whatever the crap is clog the pipes completely, I have however pulled the hose out because it was barely flowing any water and put it under the sink tap to blast it clean...

Out came 3 foot long, inch diameter brown turd. Yuck.

cool. Question answered! Thank's