Stuck In Tight

So, in our fish tanks at work.
We have these lock lines, as they're called.

They're basically nozzles that bring fresh water into the fish tanks. So that there is always filtration/circulation happening.

Occasionally though, those lock lines get clocked up.
Whether with debris, or snails (since we have a problem with those,) or chunks of food.

Once they stop letting water through.
We need to clear them out.
Otherwise the water in the tank gets stagnant and cold. Which isn't a good environment for most of our fish.

So today, I noticed that a few of our tanks appeared to have lower water levels.
Which usually indicates a blocked lock line.
So I turned off our system
-As its not a good idea to take off the lockline while the water is flowing, because if you manage to not spray water all over the place once you get it off....you'll spray water all over the place attempting to get it back on.

And went to change the locklines.

Only.
I couldn't.
Why?
Because all but one of the clogged ones had been twisted into the tank so tightly...
That it might as well have been welded in there. XP
I couldn't get them to twist off.
My grip wasn't strong enough.
-It makes it even more difficult when you have to deal with fish water, and an awkward position to get a good grip.
But no matter what I tried with my hands...it was basically glued into place.

Not good. If I didn't get the locklines cleared....
The fish wouldn't be too happy before long, if they weren't already unhappy now.

Many people would have just given up. Moved onto a different task, and let someone else some other time clear out the lock lines.
Yah.
Wasn't going to do that.
I'm the type where if one solution doesn't work, I don't give up. I just think of a new solution to fix my problem.
I'm good at that.
lol.
Which is probably why everyone in the dept comes to me when something quits working because I can usually figure out what's wrong and fix it.

In any case.
My first solution was to just find a guy coworker in the store and have him and his strength untwist the locklines for me.
Problem was, that they were all swamped with customers. -It being a holiday after all.-
So there would be no help from them anytime soon.

So what else could I use to get those things off?
Answer.
A pair of ...I think they're called pliers? I have no idea actually. Shows how much I pay attention to tools. lol.
It was like a cross between a wrench and tweezers....I think its pliers.
Only not cutting ones. Just a flat edged one, used to help unscrew/tighten things.

I found one....but it was waaaaay too big to maneuver in the small space available.
So I had to dig around the store for a while until I found a smaller set.

It took a bit of work, to get the pliers situated on the lock line to where I could twist it and slowly loosen it.
But finally!
I did it!

I cleared all those locklines and got the water flowing through them again!
Yay!

XP
It would have been so much easier of those locklines hadn't been screwed on so freaking tightly though.
A five minute job turned into like half an hour job as I struggled to get those things off.

Honestly, they don't need to be screwed in so tight they can't move. Especially considering that we have to unscrew them to clear them.
*shakes head*
Hopefully it won't be a problem now.....but we'll see.

-Sarnic Dirchi