Cleaning overflows

[350gt]

How do you, if you do?

I looked into mine the other day and they are filled with algae and aptasia.... I had a little aptasia problem in the DT but a little kalk paste and some peppermints is doing the trick slowly....

I am afraid to scrape the inside over the 2 overflows and start a outbreak....

Should I leave it as long as they are not interfering with the flow?

Should I make some black acrylic covers to block light? Doubt it would help with the aptasia but limit the growth on algae .

[KING]

Hey..i know aptasis are not good for ur dt but i was reading about some guy having a lot in his sump an notes his water clearer..lol..they were eating all the junk going by..I dont know nothing about it but they might not b to bad back there..unless it bugs u..

[FireWater]

My routine for the overflows go something like this.

Every other or third water change I siphon the bottom of the overflow to get stuff out. I wipe the algae off the teeth and sides that I can easily reach. About once every three months I actually pull the drains so all the water is out of the overflow and clean it very well at this time.

It can be hard to reach the bottom of the full size overflows so I use rigid tubing. Small pvc hooked to a siphon hose works ok as well.

[350gt]

Leroy I read that too somewhere.. Thing is I don't want to **** them off and have an explosion, I have slowly eliminated them from my DT.... Still a few more heads I need to get too...


John I have never removed the drains... I have been wanting to. I guess it would be a real good time to redo all the plumbing to my liking..... This is a whole day job it seems, maybe this Saturday...

[FireWater]

Sorry, not sure what drains you are running. Mine are the Maggie muffler style so they are just sitting on top of the bulk heads. Real easy to pull on and off. Just make sure your sump can handle all the water in the overflow if it is a larger one. First time I pulled a drain was on accident. It was a little tense for a second.

[350gt]

lol ya I will put a lot of thought into it before I even attempt.

[FireWater]

If you want some practice you can head over here. Mine are about due for a good cleaning.

[Sherita]

Clean overflows? Mine don't grow anything except tube worms, and they don't bother me. Maybe because I have black overflow covers on them?

[350gt]

Thinking about some covers as well....

[350gt]

Thinking about some covers as well....