What a difference, a clean sump

[myerst2]

Well i decided to completely take apart my sump and clean it. This included the skimmer and pump, which i do monthly. Also the return pump, remove all LR, UV and pump. Cleaned it all and removed about an inch of detritus after removing everything. i took apart all pumos and removed all the sludge. The display has never been clearer and the fish haven't been more active and vibrant. It's a big P.I.T.A. but what a difference. How often do you clean your sump? Tim

 

[JustinReef]

I clean mine every water change. Which was not very often...LOL. But now will be once a month. I do a 40G water change when I do them, which is the volume of my sump. I remove all sump water, LR, everything and then soak it all in vinegar (well not the LR) and replace it all along with the new saltwater. Your right, the tank seems so clean after.

Since going BB a few days ago, my tank has never been cleaner and my fishes colors have never looked better, so obviously they also appreciate the clean display and sump.

 

[myerst2]

I do a 20-30% water change every week so a sump cleaning every time would be crazy. Tim

 

[Pufferpunk]

I also do WC from my sump, while vaccuming the debris out of there.

 

[Recty]

I end up cleaning my sump majorly about every 3 months. I do water changes weekly so there is no way I'm going to do a deep clean of the sump that often, nor would it need it

 

[AquaKnight]

My 125's sump is almost always spotless. The flow rate in there is insane though, 1200gph overflow dumping in, with a Mag18 for a skimmer(EV240) pump, 1 Maxi-Jet for reactor/UV feed, one MJ for separate refugium feed, and all the return pipes go back into that area of the sump. All in about 20gals of rubbermaid tub. The return area does build up some junk, so I clean that out with the water change every week.

 

[reefer334]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13177395#post13177395 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquaKnight407
My 125's sump is almost always spotless. The flow rate in there is insane though, 1200gph overflow dumping in, with a Mag18 for a skimmer(EV240) pump, 1 Maxi-Jet for reactor/UV feed, one MJ for separate refugium feed, and all the return pipes go back into that area of the sump. All in about 20gals of rubbermaid tub. The return area does build up some junk, so I clean that out with the water change every week.

So basically your sump is not filtering your water at all,
it is just a closed loop.


That is a big mistake people make using there sump to create flow.

If you run water through your sump more than 4-5 times the tank volume an hour it is not there long enough to be filtered or skimmed properly.


I used to do the same thing but learned my lesson.



Chris

 

[AquaKnight]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13177518#post13177518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefer334
So basically your sump is not filtering your water at all,
it is just a closed loop.


That is a big mistake people make using there sump to create flow.

If you run water through your sump more than 4-5 times the tank volume an hour it is not there long enough to be filtered or skimmed properly.


I used to do the same thing but learned my lesson.



Chris

All that flow is in-sump, not through the sump. The overflow is a 1200gph u-tube box, with a Mag 18 as the return. It's throttled back to about 50% at the ball valve, so guesstimating about 1000gph through the sump which is 8x.

Traditionally, yea, this would be true and that's a tad high, but because of the skimmer, and the flow rate it has, the Mag 18 feed would just be circulating already skimmed water. I noticed when I used to run filter pad on the return pump and overflow tubes (don't anymore) the skimmer performance was lower with the lower flow rate through the sump (probably dropped to 3x after one of the u-tubes stopped flowing).

 

[myerst2]

I agree that many people have the water go through the sump way to quickly. I have a relatively strong pump as my return but I use two koralia 4's for additional flow and plan on adding two more. I only have a Fowlr and it's a 180. Tim