Calling JBJ45 owners - Do you clean the back sump area?

[idcgfy]

I've had my tank for a little over two months now, and have not cleaned the back area at all. Do you guys clean the back area? If so, what is your method/process?

1. Take everything out in the back
2. scrub the internals with a pad
3. Siphon the detritus
4. Do the rest of the water change with the DT area

Im trying to figure out the source of my high nitrates (10ppm) and phosphate (.25ppm) API kit.

I have three fish (two ocellaris / one yellow tang)

Feeding:

half a cube - once - daily - sometimes I skip a day of feeding
one sheet of nori - replace one day after everything has been eaten.
reef roids - once or twice a week. (I just started reef roids about two weeks ago)

thanks

 

[mndfreeze]

Tang's should not be in tanks that small. I assume its a baby? That seems like a lot of food for 3 fish.

 

[Ryan33]

I completely clean the back of my jbj 45 out about once every 4-5 weeks. I take everything out of the back and use a pad on the walls of each chamber then siphon the back out. It's a little tricky to get underneath the chambers on the sides. I have 3/8 tubing with a hard plastic tube on the end that I use to get underneath the side chambers. Using a flashlight so you can see all the nasty stuff under there really helps out. During weekly water changes I just siphon out what I can from the back with the equipment still in place.