Have you ever Cleaned your sump ?

[jd371]

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

Thank you! I do wc's through the sump and stir it up every time before I siphon, but once a year I take all the rock out and vacuum the sump with a ginormous shop vac that's a PITA to work with. This will make it a lot easier.

 

[Betty1964]

My sump is 240 gallons...I'm not doing it unless there is an urgent need to.

 

[Seanb1]

I don't clean mine.
If you look in there at night it is crawling with pods, mine is anyways.
If your not having any water quality problems I don't see any reason too.
Do people clean their miracle mud ? It's full of garbage.

 

[o2c5]

My sump is 90 gallonsco have a wave maker set up in it that turns on through out the day and I also run a Diatom Filter to get all floating things out of the system

 

[Midrats]

Just leave it be. I've never cleaned any of mine. Neither does RHF.

 

[I'm a natural blue]

I have completely emptied my sump once for a good clean out including the equipment. Tank is only a year old. I clean the acrylic when algae builds up. Other than that I leave it alone because I have a TON of pods in there and don't want to lose them.

 

[briancarterkc]

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

This is my exact process. I love the bucket head.

 

[Cary Meredith]

Nope never and I have great test results, also have a frag tank In the system that has a build up of detritus but doesn't seem to be an issue. And I don't want to lose the pods, when I clean my filter pad I always take the time to remove the pods I see, why spend the money to buy when you can save them ($20 for 1000 at aquarium depot)

 

[mtraylor]

I just recently cleaned my sump. I changed out my skimmer from an SWC 250A to a reef octopus elite 220 int. I wanted to have the flexibility of a dc pump. Since the SWC would not come out with the space I had available. I had to drain the sump and unconnect everything and clean out with a shop vac. There was allot of detris that was in the sump that is gone now Not sure what it did, but it looks nice now.

 

[Jerry Barnes]

Been using the bucket vacuum for years. Figured the saltwater would have destroyed it by now but it just keeps on sucking. And yes I vacuum my sump a few times a year. I like things neat and clean.

 

[srad750c]

I clean my sump at least once a year, sometimes twice. I don't use filter socks, I feel that they filter my water too good. I have noticed an increase of critters living in my sump after I stopped using them. I use sponges and wash them weekly in faucet water.

 

[TbyZ]

I haven't used any mechanical filtration in regards to socks, sponge or filter floss for some time. (Neither in my pond)
Recently I've set my sump up as a detritus trap (latest experiment).
The heavy stuff settles & gets trapped in a 1" course sandbed. The bacteria & critters take care of it. The scrubber takes care of the nutrients.

I'll monitor no3 & po4, & will stir the sandbed up once a month when i do a water change.

 

[Darksidereefer]

I hopped on a little late. But I'm going to clean out my sump this weekend for the first time. I've been having a nitrate issue and I have yet to clean this part of my tank. Let's see if it works.

 

[Nano man]

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...

Pics of this please

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I let the detritus mud on the bottom of my sump collect to an inch or two over the years and never cleaned it unless I was otherwise replacing the sump.

 

[Greybeard]

My sump is just that, not a refugeum, just a place to hold other equipment. no rock, sand, etc. 1st, I have a sump monster... a 2" rock crab that lives in there, helping break up whatever gets in there. 2nd, yeah, once a year, I disconnect everything, pull the sump, and clean it thoroughly. In my case, that's not that hard. EShopps RS100, drains and returns all have unions, external pump with a union ball valve on inlet and outlet... Just not that big of a deal.

Clean the sump, clean the pumps, scrub the skimmer body, inspect _everything_... good for another year. Takes me about a day.

 

[gfox]

I cleaned my 100 gallon stock tank that i use for my sump first time in 3 years.I was cleaning my skimmer anyways so i siphoned out the crap on the bottom.I now have a big Tunze power head that turns on at night for 2 hours.I will see how that works out over time.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

My sump has a valve on the side and that is where I do my water changes. I just open the valve and drain 30 gallons out. Doing my waterchanges this way still doesmt get all the detritus out since there is a little bit of sand in there but I dont mind. Having a slightly dirty sump is good IMO because youll get a diverse group of microfauna reproducing down there. As for the original poster id remove the rocks in the sump unless you have really good flow going around them preventing stuff from building up.

 

[Forsaken77]

I usually leave the little detritus for the Tisbe pods to eat being I don't have macro algae.

 

[Fish Werx]

Pics of this please

Yeah Nano man! I will post some up on my build thread that I am working on... After all, we all have silly things we "invent" to make our hobby "easier" right!! Haha!