How often do you clean out your sump and protein skimmer

by **newbie916** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:11 am

Do you guys clean out your sumps and protein skimmers? If so how often?

by **saltwaterpimp** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:22 pm

sump once a month and skimmer weekly or more often. i cleaned my skimmer every three days

by **puffedupseagull** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:55 am

So what is your maintenance procedure on sump cleaning??? Interested to no. A lot of people say not to do anything.

by **saltwaterpimp** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 1:18 pm

well this is the thing, i had a poorly desighned 20 gallon allglass sump containing a skimmer,heater and a filter sock i had no baffels . i would get detritus build up and i would get a white hard coat of calcium/alkilinity from just dumping chems in to the sump.and just to let you know the hard white coat contains phosphate, so i wanted to remove this stuff right away.i would shut the tank down,scrape it and syphon the sump out the window.if i had a better desighned sump i dont think i would have to clean it .

by **newbie916** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:26 pm

Thanks pimp, I was wondering because I've had a nitrate problem for a little while and I was looking at my refugium the other day and noticed a 1/4 inch layer of crap in the section with my return pump. There was also a bunch near my protein skimmer. I never cleaned it since I put my sump in 5 months ago. So, I cleaned the crap out to see if it was the source of my nitrate problems. Anyways, I'll probably just clean it out once a month now.

by **fihsboy** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:55 pm

I would just clean from around your pump.......I dont touch my refuge, it pretty much takes care of its self and the rest of the tank. I actually have to feed my refuge to keep the mangroves healthy.

by **puffedupseagull** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 8:00 am

Ok cool, I have the same black crap building up over the sand bed in my refuge as well. like newbie describes. Do you need to get rid of this

by **schigara** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:14 am

I clean the skimmer cup and neck every 3 days because it's performance degrades with the slimy gunk buildup.

Like Fishboy, I never clean my sump. There are huge bacterial populations down there that I don't want to wipe out with a "cleaning".

This doesn't mean I'm suggesting to never clean or vacuum gunk out of your sump. My system is different than most. My primary refugium and nutrient export is a 29 gallon Xenia scrubber. The Xenia scrubber allows for such a fast and efficient uptake of nitrates and phosphates so I don't have to scramble to remove any residual buildup in the sump.

The small refugium in the sump consists of just a deep sandbed and rubble rock. This supports a nice environment for copepod production.

I have never used mangroves but I have used many different types of macro-algae for nutrient export and none even come close to Xenia. I am curious about mangroves though, and will try them on another tank.

When I used macro like Chaeto or Caulerpa, man it would grow like crazy but my nitrates would never hit zero. They would be in the 5-40 range with no rhyme or reason. I would do more water changes, run the skimmer more dry or wetter, or feed less. It didn't matter. Nitrates were still present.

For my current SPS tank, Xenia, is working awesome to keep nitrates at zero.

by **newbie916** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:40 pm

I bought two Xenia frag's about two months ago and they have split into 5. I will move two of them to my refugium to see if I could get them to populate in there. I also sucked up all of the gunk around my protein skimmer and pump. There was at least a 1/4 inch of fish poo and decomposing stuff in there.

By the way, don't buy anything from Piece of the Reef on e-bay. I ordered over $400 worth of stuff from her in the last few months and she didn't send me my Macro Algae pack. Plus I had a bunch of DOA's that were covered on there Arrive Alive guarantee. It's been three weeks and she hasn't refunded me my money or sent me my Algae pack.

How often do you clean out your sump and protein skimmer

9 posts