How do you deal with detritus?

[nivram]

I need to clean out my sump. It's got a heavy coating of detritus. Looking for ideas.

I'm considering trying to make a vacuum with a maxijet and filter that water in a filter sock. Show me what you do.

 

[Afishionado]

I either suck them out during wc or have slugs or cucumber as long as they are not in the return chamber. I'm too lazy to vacuum every time haha.

 

[Connie]

I have good flow all through my sump, so it doesn't get dirty any more. Before I had the flow though, once a month I would do one of my weekly water changes from the sump and vacuum it out.

 

[Bry]

If it sits low enough you can't siphon it out a shop vac set up to suck up water works great

 

[joshporksandwich]

wet vac but i never clean it,

 

[jonnyu]

5 gallon bucket and a regular vacuum

 

[TJ's Reef]

Your idea using the maxijet is good and have done similar many times, by attaching a length of tubing to and terminating it into a filter sock. Currently I only need to occasionally run a filter sock for a few hours while taking a Turkey Baster to my overflow boxes which is where the detritus ends up now. I'll also blow off large colonies and any exposed LR to see if anything has settled within.

Cheers, Todd

 

[AquamanE]

Once every few months hit all the rocks with a powerhead, tumble the sand with a stick.

Sump i vaccum out once a year with a wet vac.

Nitrates are undetectable (maybe 0.2 Salifert) for the last 7 years.

 

[ReeferEric]

Yeah I personally wouldn't stir it up and filter out via sock, stuff gets kicked up from being settled. Just siphon the clear water and shop vac the layer below.

I use a mj1200 to stir while another one attached to a hose sucks the water out during a water change. Poor Eddie did it the other week because I pointed it out in his sump. LOL.

 

[evan.lundberg4]

I need to clean out my sump. It's got a heavy coating of detritus. Looking for ideas.

I'm considering trying to make a vacuum with a maxijet and filter that water in a filter sock. Show me what you do.

Before I went to a settling tank I always used a maxi jet pump to drain my sump for water changes. I would just vacuum the bottom nice and clean and then refill. It worked really well actually.

 

[Alabamareef]

i use my shop vac. along with a rubber hose. I put the rubber hose up to the shop vac hose and it pulls everythign out, may have to close the gap with one hand this way i have the small hose inside the sump and makes it easier to move around.

 

[nivram]

In my old tank I would use the 5gal home depot bucket vac. But my sump in current setup is a little too big for that My initial plan when setting up the tank was to have a power head in the sump to turn on a couple times a day to keep things detritus free. Unfortunately I never got around to installing one. And now i have to clean it up first before i can think of doing that.

 

[Luv2reef]

I have good flow all through my sump, so it doesn't get dirty any more. Before I had the flow though, once a month I would do one of my weekly water changes from the sump and vacuum it out.

+1 Connie