Refugium/sump cleaning

[johnsutter71]

I am wondering what other people do, if anything, to clean their sumps. Today I drained my sump and scrubbed it out in the back yard. It was a royal pain but my levels aren't where I want them to be. I have been getting a lot of silt and excess food draining from my overflow and collecting on the bottom. I also added a sock at the drain which I've never done before. My other issue is with my skimmer. I have a reef octopus and it has been collecting a lot of gunk at the bottom. Since their is no way to open up and clean the bottom part I took a garden hose and sprayed it out the best way I could but it still isn't as clean as I'd like. I have several featherdusters on the bottom that I couldn't remove. And last I'm using a megaflow overflow and i was wondering if anyone here covers the drain with anything like a foam block or somthing.

[allan]

I've never done any sump maintenance except to upgrade to a larger tank. :)

I have put a CUC in the sump... I got one on there now, a few crabs and an urchin.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

no sump maintenance here. seems to be a place for life forms to establish.:bigsmile:

[Big_Pun]

I do it once a year I just drain it and shop vac what silt I can. skimmer is cleaned ever 3 months, I soak it in extra strength vinegar

[Sherita]

I usually clean my sumps every six months or so. I don't remove the sump, just pump out the water, scrape the sides down and shopvac all the nasties out of there.

For skimmer cleaning I use a little muriatic acid in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Run overnight and it will remove the grot from the skimmer and leave it looking like new. I use the same treatment on stubborn powerheads and pumps, or anything else that is encrusted with tank grunge and needs to be cleaned.

[johnsutter71]

What affect does the muriatic acid have on the skimmer. My reef octopus began showing what appeared to be minor cracks a couple months after I bought it and Coralvue refused to do anything about it so I just sucked it up. I'd be afraid that my minor cracks would turn into major ones. And where do you get that at anyways? Lowes?


I usually clean my sumps every six months or so. I don't remove the sump, just pump out the water, scrape the sides down and shopvac all the nasties out of there.

For skimmer cleaning I use a little muriatic acid in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Run overnight and it will remove the grot from the skimmer and leave it looking like new. I use the same treatment on stubborn powerheads and pumps, or anything else that is encrusted with tank grunge and needs to be cleaned.

[ReefOne]

Lowes carries it, in the pool area. Strong stuff, doesnt take much, i do the same thing as Sherita

[RayAllen]

I tend to clean my sump quarterly ( every 3 months). I drain it using a small pump clean the sides and rinse and refill. i do a 25-30% water change to the main display every 3 weeks or so which is suited to the softies and lps i keep.

[Sherita]

What affect does the muriatic acid have on the skimmer. My reef octopus began showing what appeared to be minor cracks a couple months after I bought it and Coralvue refused to do anything about it so I just sucked it up. I'd be afraid that my minor cracks would turn into major ones. And where do you get that at anyways? Lowes?

I've never had it damage any of my equipment. Just be careful, it is a fairly strong acid. Always add the acid to the water, not the other way around. I do my cleaning outside, because it does produce some nasty fumes. That being said, it works MUCH better than vinegar at getting rid of nasty encrusted gunk.

Lowes or Home Depot will carry it in the pool or lawn and garden section. Always use plastic or glass containers when cleaning with it, it will discolor most metals.

In regards to your skimmer cracks....the acid will have no effect on them. Muriatic acid does not react with plastics or acrylics, so it wouldn't do anything to your skimmer besides just get it clean.

[polarbear]

how much Muriatic acid would you say you add to the 5 gallon bucket of water? I want to try this but dont want to add to much but also want to add enough to get rid of the gunk

[Big_Pun]

how much Muriatic acid would you say you add to the 5 gallon bucket of water? I want to try this but dont want to add to much but also want to add enough to get rid of the gunk

read and enjoy!!
http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/119-How-to-Clean-your-Skimmer-with-style

[Sherita]

how much Muriatic acid would you say you add to the 5 gallon bucket of water? I want to try this but dont want to add to much but also want to add enough to get rid of the gunk

I usually have about 3 1/2 gallons of water in my bucket and add 1/2 cup of muriatic acid. Plug the skimmer in and let it circulate over night. The next day, empty water from skimmer, use a soft sponge to wipe away the softened crud, rinse and install back into tank.

[polarbear]

thanks for the article

[Louis-210]

Question?
I have a 3 chamber sump, right now I currently have my skimmer in the last chamber with my return pump, is this ok ?..

[Big_Pun]

Question?
I have a 3 chamber sump, right now I currently have my skimmer in the last chamber with my return pump, is this ok ?..

skimmers need to be in a static chamber where water levels do not fluctuate. this is because once you set the water level in skimmer if water fluctuates it effects the settings it could skim wetter or even stop skimming if it drops low enough.

[Louis-210]

Makes since, will see what I can do . Thanks!

[polarbear]

skimmers need to be in a static chamber where water levels do not fluctuate. this is because once you set the water level in skimmer if water fluctuates it effects the settings it could skim wetter or even stop skimming if it drops low enough.

+1 I have mine in chamber 1 where the over flow drains into so that the water level stays the same all of the time.

[zerreissen]

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread. How many of you run sand in your refugium/sump? I currently have ~2.5" of sand in the middle compartment along with chaeto. I'll be bringing the sump offline sometime this week to clean and plug up the bulkheads as I'll never use them and they protrude into the sump quite a bit.

With that said, I'm contemplating not putting the sand back in and am curious as to what others are doing.

[johnsutter71]

Just a little silt that comes from the drain. I added a sock on the other drain to prevent silt into the skimmer and pump chamber. My only issue is the water flow is so so strong it overflows over the sock but so far it has been catching most of the sand.

[polarbear]

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread. How many of you run sand in your refugium/sump? I currently have ~2.5" of sand in the middle compartment along with chaeto. I'll be bringing the sump offline sometime this week to clean and plug up the bulkheads as I'll never use them and they protrude into the sump quite a bit.

With that said, I'm contemplating not putting the sand back in and am curious as to what others are doing.


After talking to several members here I have decided that when I clean my refugium out I will not be adding the sand back. I will just have live rock and macro in there. It will be easier to clean when the waste builds up in the bottom of the tank. All I will have to do is take a shop vac to the bottom and suck out all of the nasty stuff.

[Big_Pun]

i dont run sand, just a waste of space and trap for junk. the rocks are there for grape culerpa to anchor on

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/uu357/stangchris/1479f40e.jpg

[zerreissen]

No sand it is. Thanks for the feedback!

[350gt]

I ran no sand going on 2 years now with no issues and never cleaned it all this time..... I recently added sand after redoing my sump. For my mangrove and for the hell of it..... Maybe I shouldn't have, who knows.... Lol

I will get some snails in there to sift the sand...

[zerreissen]

I can confirm that muriatic acid, along with a little elbow grease, mixed in water works wonders on sumps/skimmers:

Before:

http://8178eb98aa3b1c5acb0f-6baba615fdd22958b50116503c3b7535.r45.cf1.rackcdn.c om/sump_dirty.JPG

After:

http://8178eb98aa3b1c5acb0f-6baba615fdd22958b50116503c3b7535.r45.cf1.rackcdn.c om/sump_clean.JPG

[350gt]

That's clean.......

[Scutterborn]

Mines cleaner...

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/09/25/ydyqe2y4.jpg

Of course, it hasn't been used yet!


- Ben -