Cleaned my sump. WOW!

stagefright13

New member
OMG I removed my protein skimmer to get the salt off the external parts. It is really big for my small 10 gallon sump. After I looked under it I saw GIANT plates of crust broke off of the tanks surface. It is an ETSS skimmer and I had to pry the bioballs out of the tower with a coat hanger and replace them all.

Long story short I ended up using the mag7 skimmer pump to drain the sump. Man they pump like crazy. Like my kitchen faucet but twice as fast! Fire hydrant style. Then pulled hardened SHEETS of sediment out of the sump. Wich were covered with 1000's of worms. I had to pull the whole sump and use a cleaver to scrape it down. And there was one spot that couldn't be cleaned even with that. Near the return.

How often do people take their sumps down or skimmers? Obviously 6 years for me was too long.

I can't believe the performance of my skimmer now after a thorough cleanup! It even has it's sound back. And super foam once again. Do you think I might get some nitrates after killing 3000 worms? Do worms eat nitrates?

I did this last night and am waiting for the lights to turn on before I test it. I also changed 5 gallons of water. It's a 29.
 
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you didnt clean your skimmer for 6 years??? I cant belive it was stil producing anything haha yea ill hit mine up every other month or so, get it cranking again.
 
Well I do clean the pumps lol just didn't do the skimmer body or sump. I just wasn't into my tank for a while. But I am back now. I kept it running with Kalkwasser alone for a very long time. I kept the DKH and calcium very high...

Yeah slap me now I shoulda known better. You can't believe how encrusted everything was. I shoulda took pics before I dumped all that stuff in the trash...

But I DID pull the bioballs like 3 years ago. GEEZ slap me again!
 
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12933069#post12933069 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stagefright13
But I DID pull the bioballs like 3 years ago. GEEZ slap me again!

Whew, I thought you were going to say 4 years...that would have just been crazy! :lol:
 
I know 4 years and I woulda needed a drill bit to get the bioballs out... Hey but at least in my fallow couple of years I kept everything alive! Some people just sell it all. I love my pets and doing my best to keep them now. I turned a new leaf so to speak...

And my fish love me again!! No words to describe how happy they are now. I feel so bad about the neglect.

I bought them 2 65 watt pc's and and brand new RO/DI in the past couple months and they like me again. :)
 
This is a pic of what my sump was encrusted with. I pulled it out of the trash and sorry about the blurry. But I am not a photographer. I scraped sheets of this off.

sheet.JPG
 
I'm sure many will come back after I spurred them in the water. But I needed to remove the calcium crust they were attached to. Plus just moving the skimmer would produce a snow storm in the main. Or a pump for that matter.

The worms originally attached to the glass then got encrusted in a major way!

Lights are on gonna test my water soon.
 
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