how do you keep detritus from accumulating in the overflow?

[d0ughb0y]

every time I see my nitrates go up from 0, I find that I have quite a bit of detritus (mostly uneaten sinking pellet food) at the bottom of the overflow. The overflow has a standpipe so it seems that by design, anything that sinks below the drain hole which is close to the top of the stand pipe, will never go down to the sump (which I have a filter sock) and just accumulate in the overflow. Is there a different standpipe design that does not have this issue? I have a stockman standpipe right now, but I see durso and gurgle buster would have the same problem. seems like standpipes solves one problem but introduces another problem.

 

[SkullV]

I had a maxijet 400 in my old overflow pointed at the bottom to keep all that stuff in suspension until it could get sucked down by the durso.

 

[pmrossetti]

pull durso up and let overflow drain.

 

[aleonn]

I turn off my return pump during feeding time, but I still find some pellets on the bottom of the overflow (along with a moderate amount of detritus). Occasionally I find my nassarius snails inside the overflow doing some cleaning work, and you could consider putting in one or two inside if they don't have easy access into that compartment.

 

[d0ughb0y]

thanks for the replies.

pulling out the stand pipe will not help for me, as the drain bulkhead has a bunch of adapters to reduce it to 1" for the stand pipe, so all the overflow water will drain down but will still leave some water that now contains all the pellets and detritus. I then manually have to reach all the way down and scoop them out.

I was thinking of adding the powerhead close to the bottom of the overflow, so I'll give that a try.

 

[MLconstruction]

I syphon the crap outta mine when i do water changes. then i pick out the dozen or so pods and put them in the fuge. occasionally i find a fish in there that i forgot i owned. Had a manderin in my overflow for over a month cause i thought he was dead! its kinda like getting a prize in the box of cereal!

 

[Lynnmw1208]

hmm you make me want to take a peek into my overflow box... lol

 

[MLconstruction]

Might find something interesting. Last week i found like 4 pounds of hair algae.

 

[davocean]

I just siphon mine once in a great while when doing a WC.

 

[pimp4cheddar]

While draining tank water during a water change...just stick the hose in the overflow and drain it out...

Easy as pie...

 

[Palting]

Interesting. I have 2 corner overflows, running over a year, and nothing in there. I just checked.