How to remove detritus from the sump easily....

Alabamareef · Mar 15, 2015

I use a shop vac along with a small hose, 1/4" ID. The samll hose I put insid the shop vac hose and when I want to pull out detritis I use one hand to cover up the shop vac hose end and then the suction is transfered to the small hose. Works great...

IronVulture · Mar 15, 2015

Old canister filter filled with filter floss use the inlet to stir up and suck up detritus and put the outlet right back in the sump. When your done just through out the filter floss.

mc-cro · Mar 15, 2015

my sump is in the basement, and is on a raised platform, about 1ft off the ground, makes siphoning every weekend a breeze

StikHedRon · Mar 17, 2015

These canister filters everyone keeps mentioning, are they powered or something? How are you forcing the water through the canister?

mahmoud · Mar 17, 2015

use the head of a freshwater filter and put hosepipe in the output of the filter head directly to a bucket

booth2010 · Mar 17, 2015

ronhaskovec said:
These canister filters everyone keeps mentioning, are they powered or something? How are you forcing the water through the canister?

A canister filter just a type of filter, yes they are powered by plugging them into a wall.. MarinelandÂ® C220 Canister Filter | Filters | PetSmart

shred5 · Mar 17, 2015

miyags said:
I use a bucket head shop vac from Home depot

Same here I use a wet dry vac.
Mine fits the top of a 5 gallon bucket and I use it only for my reef.
There are several out there sold by like Home Depot or Lowes.

booth2010 · Mar 17, 2015

But obviously if you went that route you would look for a used one I just used that to give you an example

-Logzor · Mar 17, 2015

shred5 said:
Same here I use a wet dry vac.
Mine fits the top of a 5 gallon bucket and I use it only for my reef.
There are several out there sold by like Home Depot or Lowes.

Same here, every 3rd water change, I do my entire water change from the sump with the brilliantly simple device. Like many of us, I don't have an elevated sump and also have my aquarium in the basement.

If I'm just pulling detritus I try to nearly flatting the suction nozzle of the shopvac against the bottom glass of the sump. This maximizes detritus collection and reduces water intake if I'm not doing a big water change.

IronVulture · Mar 17, 2015

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=321698429738
This is the exact one I use but I picked mine up used from my lfs for 50 bucks. Just pop it open and fill it with cheap filter floss no need for more expensive media. I personally through out the filter floss each time I use it and rinse the canister with fresh water before I store it until I need it again

zemuss · Mar 17, 2015

This is why i installed the manifold. I have a media reactor hooked up now. What I do is turn off all of the other flow (tank / ATS ) hook up a line to my pump suck up all the crap into the media reactor then take the filter floss out and throw it away.
I have a long enough hose to hook it up to the main tank for vacuuming the sand bed now.

mcarroll · Mar 17, 2015

Alabamareef said:
I use a shop vac along with a small hose, 1/4" ID. The samll hose I put insid the shop vac hose and when I want to pull out detritis I use one hand to cover up the shop vac hose end and then the suction is transfered to the small hose. Works great...

Best detritus removal idea I've heard in a while!

miyags · Mar 17, 2015

HarborFreight use to sell a vac attachment kit for cleaning electronics. That would be good to get in tight spaces. I think the tubes were 1/2in. and came with brushes.

pmt81777 · Mar 18, 2015

You can use the aqueon water change or Python that uses the sink as a suction

Arron209 · Mar 18, 2015

I usually run a powerhead in my sump as well so the detritus doesn't settle and gets picked up by my skimmer. Once a month I clean my skimmer and use a small pump to take out the small amount of detritus that's in the corner where there's little flow.

StikHedRon · Mar 19, 2015

I'm really liking the canister filter idea guys, thanks for all your input. I do like the bucket vac but I just think it will pull too much water out and be more of a hassle than adding filter floss to the canister filter and throwing it out. I can then pump the water through the filter and right back into the tank! This is PERFECT!