Have you ever Cleaned your sump ?

[vic5hands]

I have yet to remove all my live rock from my sump and clean it out. Am I wrong? I have no problems with any of my readings. What would you do? Should I disturb the tank or leave it alone. It's been that way for the pass 5 years . Thanks in advance

 

[Roy 9121]

I'm going tho follow this, cuz i never clean mine either.

 

[Tyreef2016]

I like to try and siphon whatever i can from my sump every water change. just keeps the sump a lot cleaner.

 

[Fish Werx]

Not sure if it necessary? Guess it would depend on how much junk accumulates around and under your rock. My sump is pretty much on floor level, so instead of using a siphon hose I fashioned a small "vacuum" out of a couple lengths of tubing and an extra power head/pump I had lying around. Submerge the whole thing, plug it in and use the inlet tube to suck all the gunk from under and around the rock and the outlet tube shoots it into a bucket...

 

[happyhourhero]

If I can see detritus piling up I will siphon it out. I like to also at least clean my equipment down there once every 6 months.

 

[rbraunberger]

I clean the detritus out of mine every three months or so

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

I take a toothbrush and scrub the walls. I have two small pumps in my skimmer and return chambers that circulate water which prevent detritus build up.

 

[Bradley Crocker]

A newer, bigger, badder, better sump comes out every 6 months, so just upgrade!
Me? I don't want a second job, so I'm gonna try the tubing & PH idea. I never clean mine either.

 

[prsnlty]

If I can see detritus piling up I will siphon it out. I like to also at least clean my equipment down there once every 6 months.

That's what I do also

 

[trido]

I have a 150G sump on my 450 sytem. Last year I broke down the 55G fuge and cleaned the 6"DSB by taking it out and rinsing it. This year I took out the 100+ pounds of LR, shook it clean and cleaned the 3" of detritous out of the bottom of that chamber. My system is mostly SPS so accumulation of nutrients is sooner or later going to result in NO3 build up. Also, a new system always seems to grow corals faster and prettier than an old dirty one.

 

[PJS]

So far , I clean the sump (drained, washed out and dried) once a year. I read a post on a thread where a guy uses a Magnum 350 with the outlet tube going back to the sump, doing a continuous vacuum without losing water. Im looking for a used one now so I can use this trick.

 

[RMS18]

I have a Sicce nano pump that I have some vyinal tubing on. Once every 2 months about I vacuum the sump bottom with the pump, works great and keeps it nice and clean of anything that gets past the filter socks.

 

[saltyhog]

I use a Bucket-Head from Home depot. It's a little wet-dry vacuum that fits on the top of a 5 gallon bucket. It has a much smaller tube than a regular wet-dry vacuum. Just vacuum all the detritus out of the sump every 6 months or as needed.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-5-gal-1-75-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-BH0100/202017218

 

[Dancingmad]

I clean my sump once a year maybe(The walls when I can't see things and need to see them!) - If I'm feeling lazy I'll drop a small pump into the sump chambers and kick around all the detritus into suspension. My softies usually like that. Like some bonus om noms time for them. I'll drop in a filter sock and monitor my skimmer too just to make sure it doesn't go too buck wild. Just my method!

 

[Salty1962]

I clean mine out every 6 months. I do a complete clean and soak my pumps. Good opportunity to make sure things are ok

 

[Donovan Joannes]

My 10G sump stays clean after 3 cowries tiger snails become permanent resident. Not even sponges survived. Speaking of cleaning, I did cleaned my sump once.

 

[JBradford]

My sump gets cleaned weekly. My sump happens to be 10% of my water, so I do my water change with my sump water.

I usually blow my rocks off in the DT with a powerhead about an hour before a WC (which is also the only time I run a filter sock) then I turn everything off, let the sump fill, siphon out water and detritus, refill with fresh salt mix, remove sock, turn everything back on. This process has been working great.

 

[MaiReef]

I use a Bucket-Head from Home depot. It's a little wet-dry vacuum that fits on the top of a 5 gallon bucket. It has a much smaller tube than a regular wet-dry vacuum. Just vacuum all the detritus out of the sump every 6 months or as needed.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-5-gal-1-75-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-BH0100/202017218

Wow, I was using a Mag pump, but this is better. Just ordered one. Thanks.

 

[themcnertney]

I'm on the other side of the fence on this one. I have never cleaned my sump. I don't run filter socks, so it gets pretty dirty. That's kind of my intention though. "Dirty sump, clean display"

 

[themcnertney]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-5-gal-1-75-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-BH0100/202017218

My sump pump in my basement just failed and flooded the whole basement. This could've came in handy. thanks for the link.