Do you clean your sump and why or why not?

[robert teseo]

i do my water changes from the sump, it gets vacuumed 1x per month.

 

[driftin]

Does it keep the bottom all clear?

Most of it. I have a fairly small sump with three chambers. I keep the power head in the largest, and it keeps that very clean. The other chambers have other pumps in them and don't get much build up.

 

[Dal-Reef]

I would say I clean my sump every 3-4 months. I pull return pump, skimmer, Clarisea filter roller, heater and return valve to give it a deep clean. Wipe down all of the cabinet walls, outside of the sump and take a scraper to the inside walls. I do not siphon out all of the detritus since I need some of the tank nutrients. I just did mine 2 weeks ago. I will admit I am little OCD on this stuff.

 

[PedroYoung]

One of the great things about a basement sump is it's really easy to clean. Can siphon out detritus easily, and I wipe down the exterior/top about once a week when I change socks. I have another tank with in stand sump and it's never been completely cleaned.

Untitled by Peter Young, on Flickr

 

[Marco9926]

Just cleaned my sump once in a whole year...
Now I weekly move some "dirty" from the bottom of it to let it go to the tank by my inlet pump: my sps and lps does appreciate this very much!!!!!!

Ps: I got no mechanical filter on the drain, just it finish righe in my ATS and then in a "decanter" zone. No skimmer.

Here is my tank, hope you'll like it!!

 

[Bradley C]

No sump on my 180. Ever now and then, I take a pvc pipe and swirl it around vigorously in the skimmer

 

[uhgster1]

I have a refugium with so much chaeto in it it acts as a mechanical filter. I trim off the bleached portion on top every other week. I see detritus form but don’t worry about it since my phos and nitrates are mostly undetectable. But I DO clean out my skimmer every other week and change out socks every two days. I do keep one section clean where the skimmer is because I do my water changes there and it’s convenient to do with the skimmer out of the way.

 

[ReefBeta]

clean it when it's eye sore to me.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I do the full pump maintenance at least annually for the return pump. It is external. My other pumps will get cleaned about 3 times per year. Now my sump, I vacuum it out about once every 6 water changes or so. I run socks, but only on one return. So, detritus builds up and I like to keep on top of it. Sometimes I just vacuum the water change from the sump, sometimes I will drain the sump completely (usually just the rock section).

 

[jenniferreichardt]

Do y’all that clean it regularly, do you see a large decrease in pods?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Nope.

To clarify, I just change the water out and suck up debris. The rocks and such are left in and stay live. No issues keeping pods.

 

[Vette67]

I use the accumulation of detritus in my sump as my indicator of when I should do a water change. Once I can’t see the bottom, it’s time. Usually takes a moth or 2 to accumulate to that point.... then I siphon it out, and down the drain it goes.

As far as the rest, no. I have literally thousands of sponges and fan worms growing on the walls of my sump. They are welcome guests that get to stay. I believe they filter the water as they grow, so they are a net benefit to the system.

 

[KevPool]

I'm still quite new to this. Now that my main system is up and running I do plan on monthly cleaning on my sump. As it stands I empty out my skimmer when it looks bad and wipe down any salt I see.

 

[BlackGoldReefs]

What'sump everyone? Happy Wednesday!

If I were to guess I would say that 90% of us have a sump tied to our reef tanks. Sumps of course are great for more water volume, hiding equipment like heaters, reactors, skimmers etc. Sumps are great for many different reasons but they are also great at getting DIRTY and getting filled with detritus! We love to keep our tanks clean because it looks good but it also cuts down on algae outbreaks and elevated levels of nitrates and more. But what about cleaning our sumps? Let's talk about it!

1. Do you worry about keeping your sump clean?

2. How often do you clean your sump?

image via @sil40sx

I found this cheap pump at northern tool that does a great job in small places in the sump. Well worth the 12 bucks, just wish is came with a plug for the wall instead of just battery powered.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I found this cheap pump at northern tool that does a great job in small places in the sump. Well worth the 12 bucks, just wish is came with a plug for the wall instead of just battery powered.

I was gifted one of those. Seemed great for the first water change but after that it never worked again....

 

[725196]

Annually

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Hey rev does this answer your question?

my sump cleaning consists of me occasionally blowing the detritus around with a turkey baster so it gets sucked up by my return pump and blown into my tank for the corals to eat

 

[X-37B]

Every 6 months. I have a small powerhead to keeps things moving.
I remove and clean the return pump, skimmer, and powerhead.
Once a year I remove my carx and clean it also.
I run a 40 breeder with no baffles which makes it easy to clean.

 

[NigelRichardson]

So glad to see this topic being discussed... As a new reefer (Tank up and running for close to 4 months), its one of the things that I've pondered.

Good (?) to see that - as so many things with this hobby - its not as a simple as a YES / NO Question !

I figured I'd wait until the 6 month mark and then pull out the Skimmer / Return Pump and give them a deep clean - seems that may also be the time to have a sump spring clean - even if that doesnt involve pulling the whole thing to bits...

 

[Reeflier]

I'm new to reefing, although I've kept salt fish for 40 years. I never cleaned out my sump which was setup and running for 22 years. That tank started to leak so I decided to get a bigger tank and transition into reefing. When I shut down the old system I discovered over 1-1/2" of detritus and other gunk in the bottom of the sump. I vowed to do better when reefing. I bought Eheim's Quick Vac Pro which I hope will allow me to clean up the sump bottom easily every quarter, or so.