Spring Cleaning
I got busy today, to say the least. Pulled three of the four skimmers offline and got them going in vinegar water, pulled all four carbon reactors offline, emptied and scrubbed them clean, then reloaded with fresh carbon. While I had the skimmers and reactors out of the sumps, I decided to do some "spring cleaning", and took after the sumps for a good scrubbing. Scraped the sides (good grief, coralline EVERYWHERE), scrubbed the bubble towers and put fresh rubble in, wiped the outsides down, cleaned the heaters, fan holders and fans, skimmer riser stands, vacuumed in the stands and cleaned the return pumps. I also used the shop vac to suck up all the nasty crud from the sump chambers that I cleaned (I just scraped the coralline off the walls in the fuges, didn't empty them). I also gave the glass in the tanks a badly needed overhaul with the scraper and my magic eraser (more danged coralline). Got everything back in and running, the skimmers are busy depositing grunge in their skimmer cups, the reactors are quietly running, and my sumps are crystal clear and nice to look at again.
Sump cleaning is a nasty chore, but the only really bad one here is the one on the predator tank. And that is only because it is SO tight in the stand (I built that sump to take advantage of every inch of useable space), that I have very little room to work in there. The four chambered beast under the main frag system is always filthy, but access to it from two sides makes the work easier. My 72g reef tank sump is easy as well.
Glass cleaning, well, not so easy. The 72g has coral very close to the glass, so I have to make sure I don't frag it when cleaning. The predator tank should be easy, except that Buddy the lionfish wants to "help". He's pretty sure that whatever I am doing at the moment is the most interesting thing he has EVER seen, and he simply must be right in the middle of it. This makes cleaning his tank..........interesting. The big frag system isn't hard, other than the fact that there are three tanks tied into that system, and that makes for lots of scraping, particularly since coralline grows on every available surface in those tanks.
One tank left to go, the smaller frag system. Small being relative, since it is two feet by four feet, and the stand is a bit tight. That skimmer comes offline in the morning, so it can get a vinegar bath while I am at work.
I think I rescued a hundred snails from places they shouldn't have been in my sump. I am sure they will be back there again by tomorrow. And I relocated about 25 elephant snails that were cruising in the skimmer sections. I'm glad it is done. I am sure my tanks will be much happier with their clean sumps. I know I am happier with all the grunge gone.
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