Cleaning your sump

[Pntbll687]

Hey everyone,

I'm away from my tanks for about a week at the moment. Everything is fine with them. I cleaned my large system skimmer before I left and it got me thinking...
Do you guys clean out your sumps every so often??

I'm running cheato, about 50lbs of live rock rubble, and a skimmer in my sump. Before leaving I took the cheato out and rinsed it in ro water and trimmed it up to get some growth. I was shocked by. The amount of crap that came out of it.

I think when I get back I'm going to do some major maintenance on the sump. Anyone here take their rock out and rinse?? Not sure if I'm going down the right road or not.

 

[TheEngineer]

I recently cleaned out my sump after two years of running. It wasn't terrible, but I ran filter socks so that isn't too surprising. There are a number of people on here who report doing it annually.

 

[gfordQC]

I just cleaned mine out this weekend after a year of running. Same as you trimmed up my chaeto. I have marinepure balls, 1" block, and some rock. I didn't rinse anything just drained the sump put the rock, chaeto, and marinepure in the same water while i cleaned it out. Did my water change and then added the rock in. I added a pump also just to try and get some movement.

 

[TheEngineer]

I just cleaned mine out this weekend after a year of running. Same as you trimmed up my chaeto. I have marinepure balls, 1" block, and some rock. I didn't rinse anything just drained the sump put the rock, chaeto, and marinepure in the same water while i cleaned it out. Did my water change and then added the rock in. I added a pump also just to try and get some movement.

Same process I followed. I used a MJ1200 to run the water through a filter sock and a K4 to keep the stuff suspended.

 

[Pntbll687]

Ok cool. Tank has been running for about 1.5yrs and I've never cleaned the sump.

Just wanted to be sure I'm on the right path. I see some gha and red slime algae in the sump so I wanted to clean it up.