If you take out the bolts around the top, the whole top part of the filter comes off the base. You can take a bucket, fill most of the way with water, then add the acid and submerge the fingers in the solution and soak for a few hours. It depends on how dirty the fingers are, if they are really bad (discolored) you might want to soak for longer. Then pull the assembly out of the bucket and hose the fingers off thoroughly. That's how I do mine. Be REALLY careful handling the acid, make sure you add the acid to water, not water to acid and you should wear eye protection as well as gloves.