How often do you tear down your sump?

jglackin

New member
I had to do a shift at the Shedd today from 1 to 3, so I spent all morning and late afternoon today tearing down my sump, cleaning everything in it, cleaning up the skimmer and pumps, disconnecting the plumbing, cleaning it all out, and then reconnecting everything new. It's amazing how much salt creep and crud builds up in the sump area. I am sooo glad that Doug Lehman made my sump and refugium in two parts rather than one, so I can tear down the sump and not screw up my fuge. I then did a very large water change. My next project will be to take the hood and lights off and then clean everything out and put it all back together again.

Just curious, does anyone else do this? How often do you do this?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12264959#post12264959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ILLiDaN
or when it becomes a safety hazard :D


I'm pretty sure that reef aquaria by definition are a safety hazard....:lol:
 
Jim, Are you taking your med's? Sounds a little like that excessive compulsive disorder is coming out. ;) JK
Carl
I just go by the "don't fix it unless its broke" mentality.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12265911#post12265911 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kmiec123
Jim, Are you taking your med's? Sounds a little like that excessive compulsive disorder is coming out.

Yeah, I know. But, when I decided to set this up, I committed to myself that I would tear everything down (with the exception of the tank itself) at least twice a year, in order to keep everything clean and to make sure that everything is maintained. This thing is in my livingroom and, when showing it off to friends and visitors, the sump and fuge are always part of the "tour".
 
Jim, are you still having problems with nitrates? We were talking a little bit about your tank yesterday at Inland with the turf scrubber. How often are you maintaining it? What style is yours?
 
My nitrates tested out at 8 last week.

My turf scrubber is too small for my system. My scrubber is rated for a 75 gallon system and mine is over 200.

I am not sure what the deal is. With my DSB and plenum, I should have absolutely no nitrate problems. Add in the scrubber, and it should be a no brainer.
 
Are you scraping the scrubber weekly? They said that it is very important at Inland.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12268361#post12268361 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BlakDuc
Are you scraping the scrubber weekly? They said that it is very important at Inland.

I mow it down about once a month. I'll start doing it more often, just to see how it goes.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12268684#post12268684 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
I do WC from my sump, so I can siphon the crud out of there.

Yeah, I do, too, but it is not the same.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12269170#post12269170 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jglackin
I mow it down about once a month. I'll start doing it more often, just to see how it goes.

Jim, Morton said that it was pretty much critical to do it weekly, even if there isn't much there. I am just relaying the info since I have never used a turf scrubber myself.
 
I'll give it a try. However, with a very deep sand bed, a plenum, and a fuge stuffed with lots of chaeto, nitrates should not be an issue, whether I scrape my scrubber or not.

I scraped down all of the algae yesterday. When I cleaned out my sump, I also cleaned out the scrubber. I will check my nitrates on Sunday and see how they look.

Now that you are going to be working in the water lab, you can accurately test your own water. It will be interesting to see how your nitrates read at the Shedd versus what you have been getting at home.
 
Jim, I haven't tested them since the night Beefy came over and re-aquascaped the tank. It was un measurable that night. I am back to doing my weekly 1/3rd W/C every week though. I have only been testing for Ca and Alk every other day. I will test it there to see if my test kits are accurate though. It should be interesting. I have been thinking of switching from the Seachem test kits over to the Elos. I pretty much hate the Seachem Ca test. I have been through 3 little bottles of the "powder," no matter how hard I try to keep it dry, it gets water in it somehow and turns into a rock.
 
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