BB cleanup? Vacuum cleaner?

kpk

kpk

Been Reefin'
Hey all I just have a quick question. I have always just sucked the detritus off the bottom of my bb tank (what there is anyways)when changing water. I want to keep changing water, but is there a way to suck it out and keep the old water? Like some kinda of canister/vacuum or something, that sucks it, runs it through a filter and pumps back to the tank? It would be nice to blow of the rock every few days and suck up the crap off the bottom w/o changing 20 gallons of water. I do have good flow with a sequence barracuda on a closed loop in my 75g.

What is there for me?

Thanks,
Kyle
 
Either start a syphon into your sump with a small micron bag or maybe use a canister filter to suck it up and filter it. Or the above suggestion.
 
How exactly does a canister work? Do you use a pump to pump to them or do they suck? I have always just had sump/fuges.

Kyle
 
Take a long piece of vinyl tubing and a filter media bag..

Rubber band the media Bag over one end of the tubing very securely.

Put that in a filter sock in your sump.

Take the other end of the hose and put in front of a pump or power head to start a siphon and just start vacuming.

Bag will catch all the heavy stuff and you dont have to shut down your circulation pumps...

When done just invert the bag and dump the crap you get out... easy cheap method that works..:)
 
I put a filter sock on my overflow drain in the sump for a couple days every week. When I do, I siphon water out the tank and put the siphon hose drain end in the sock. Works great.
 
These are all good ideas. I need to get some filter socks!

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Kyle
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8154648#post8154648 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NuclearReefs
Those are way cool,, but my version is cheaper! hehehe!
Click to expand...

I totally agree...I syphon the bottom of my tank into the filter bag in my sump and then simply replace it once I am done.
 
A magnum 350 canister filter works great. It comes with a vacum attatchment and your good to go. I know several who use these including myself. Easy way to clean your tank.
 
I have a old 220 model but i would not want to leave the water and waste in there all the time and cleaning it all the time would suck.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8149507#post8149507 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NuclearReefs
Take a long piece of vinyl tubing and a filter media bag..

Rubber band the media Bag over one end of the tubing very securely.

Put that in a filter sock in your sump.

Take the other end of the hose and put in front of a pump or power head to start a siphon and just start vacuming.

Bag will catch all the heavy stuff and you dont have to shut down your circulation pumps...

When done just invert the bag and dump the crap you get out... easy cheap method that works..:)
Click to expand...

Works like a charm for me, as well. Very quick and easy method of removing crud in short order - just remove bag after cleanup.
 
what I do on my BB tank is turn the Vortech all the wall up and watch all the detritus go up and over the overflow box. The water passes thru a filter sock were 95% of it get's trapped. As you can see from the picture below you can see how effective it can be. Good luck on your quest to remove the nastys :) from the bottom of your tank. The filter sock is the one to the left
42064sumpbag-med.JPG
 
I don't understand whats wrong with doing the water change ?? Just siphon the crap when doing water changes and all is good

and get some more flow in there
 
That Vaccum looks cool, but wow not for that money. I think Nuclears Idea would work really well for what I want to do.

trueblackpercula that is also a good idea, but I need to get filter socks. I went to petsmart and they didn't have any. I kinda live in the boonies so guess I may as well buy a couple online.

Justin there isn't anything wrong with doing the water changes. I would just rather keep up with siphoning every few day to keep it spotless. I do agree I prolly need more flow, but for the corals what I got goin looks fine. Polyps are always wipping back and for etc.

On my closed loop I have six returns with locline on them. I bet I could do like tbp and turn those to blow behind the rock when I want to vaccum or change water.

BTW my really problem isn't detritus in front of the rocks, which is very little, it is the little that settles behind the rocks.

These are all good ideas.

Kyle
 
Is any of your flow in the bottom, I mean it sounds like if your needing to siphon it that often that you don't necessarily need more flow overall if you stuff is happy, but more on the bottom to keep it suspended better.
 
I think you are right Justin. I need to face some of the nozzles down instead of straight toward the other side. I will still need to vaccum some, but that should keep it for the most part suspended. I will give that a try.

Thanks,
Kyle
 
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