Cleaning out the Sump

phish guy

phish guy

New member
i have been having trouble with nitrates lately and i have been doing many things to clean the tank. i have flushed the LR out with my Koralias, slowly stirred up the sand, water changes like crazy, changed all media, and cleaned out all the tubing. but i have noticed that alot of debris has settled at the bottom of my sump. i try ti stir it up but i dont want it to go all back into the display. i have tried siphoning it out but i cant get a siphon going with it being so low to the ground. i also tried netting it out but my sump is so crammed, i can barely move the net. are there any tools to suck up the debris besides a water pump with a propeller (which would get jammed from the debris if i used it)? or does anybody know what else i could do to get this crap out!?
 
Python water changer, problem solved. I use mine to clean the sump with every water change. :-)
 
I use a wet vac I think its the same as a( shop vav) what I do is turn off return pump leave skimmer on and stir up water and vac it out cause I have sand in mine
 
+1 for shop vac. There is an inexpensive shop vac (~$20) that you only buy the motor and hose portion, then it sits and seals on a standard 5 gal bucket; iirc it's called 'bucketmax'. No more using the household/garage shopvac = no more fishy smell = happy wife = better reefing!
 
Take a maxi jet and enough tubing to pump out the sump. You could rinse more water around if you wanted or just vac then. It'd get most everything.
 
maxi jet definitely easy way to go. a short piece of tubing on the intake, long piece on output into bucket!
 
my shop vac filled up 16 gallons in less than 5 seconds!
Wayy too much power, it literally filled the entire 16 gallon container before i had time to even get the hose to the bottom of the tank lol
 
sirreal63 said:
Python water changer, problem solved. I use mine to clean the sump with every water change. :-)
Click to expand...

agreed, i do the same... jus siphon out your sump debris as you drain for your water changes... i dont use filter socks cuz i do this weekly, even if there is very little in there...
 
i do have small pieces of rubble in the sump that i want to get rid of too. wont they get stuck in the MJ? the vac is the only thing i can think of that wont get clogged.
 
Jstdv8 said:
my shop vac filled up 16 gallons in less than 5 seconds!
Wayy too much power, it literally filled the entire 16 gallon container before i had time to even get the hose to the bottom of the tank lol
Click to expand...

You need to pump out the sump water 1st, the shopvac is for all the debris you can't get with a maxi-jet.
 
Definitely a maxijet... I used one for years to do water changes out of my sump. I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Water change & clean sump ever week.
 
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