Clean Sump?

[bonkuba]

I have a 90 gal Oceanic with a 20 gallon sump. I have a skimmer in my sump....along with Bio Balls.
My question is do you ever need to "clean" your sump?? My phosphates are a little high and for the life I cannot seem to figure out why?
I use DI water and it tests fine....never use tap. I feed every other day.....no flake or frozen. I do water changes (10%) ever 2 wseeks.
My phosphates are about 1.5.
My sump is the only thing I can think of that could be producing the phosphate.
One more item the tank has been up about 3 years.
Sean

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by bonkuba
I have a 90 gal Oceanic with a 20 gallon sump. I have a skimmer in my sump....along with Bio Balls.
My question is do you ever need to "clean" your sump?? My phosphates are a little high and for the life I cannot seem to figure out why?
I use DI water and it tests fine....never use tap. I feed every other day.....no flake or frozen. I do water changes (10%) ever 2 wseeks.
My phosphates are about 1.5.
My sump is the only thing I can think of that could be producing the phosphate.
One more item the tank has been up about 3 years.
Sean
if there is junk in the bottom of ur sump, this might be the cause. you should have a prefilter pad and that should do the job but sometimes theres some really small particles it cant catch that accumulate in the bottom of ur sump. just syphon it out w/ a python or mechanical syphon

 

[mrmaroon]

Some people complain that bio balls can cause problems after a while. If you did rinse them, you would only want to rinse some of them as to not kill all of the beneficial bacteria.

 

[bonkuba]

I haven't cleaned anything in the sump yet. But looks like I need to clean out the bottom, etc. I will the bio-balls as they are. I can't really find a consensus on what to do with the bio-balls, so I guess the best bet is to just leave them alone.
I will siphon out the sum and try to scrape it clean (as well as all the loose material).
I have heard some people speak of using matress filler (may be the wrong term) that you can get at walmart for the pre-filter. Is this safe to use?
Sean

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by bonkuba
I haven't cleaned anything in the sump yet. But looks like I need to clean out the bottom, etc. I will the bio-balls as they are. I can't really find a consensus on what to do with the bio-balls, so I guess the best bet is to just leave them alone.
I will siphon out the sum and try to scrape it clean (as well as all the loose material).
I have heard some people speak of using matress filler (may be the wrong term) that you can get at walmart for the pre-filter. Is this safe to use?
Sean
your lfs should have the white and blue cotton pad that you can use as a prefilter. thats what we use in our sump w/ no problems. at my lfs, they sell a sheet 6'x3' for $9

 

[bonkuba]

Thanks for the reply!!

 

[mrmaroon]

I buy the Whisper Filter cartridges and use them as a prefilter. W/O the carbon of course.

 

[dejaco]

If your 90 has LR and a sand bed why are you usung bioballs? They are so damn efficient
at breaking down waste that they cuase an increase in nitrates. Also since you have a sump why not buy a white poly filter for phosphate removal and cut it to size where water
leaves bioball chamber. That should help to reduce or eliminate the problem. Phospate is a nutrient that comes from somewhere. You say it's not your source water so it has to be something you are putting into system. Usually it enters and accumulates from overfeeding. So clean out the bottom of sump, do a 20% water change, place the phosphate removing sponge in system, wait a day or 2 and remeasure phophate levels. Good luck now.

 

[bonkuba]

I appreciate the reply, but I am VERY nervous in pulling out my bio-balls. There seems to be more on this board and many more on other boards that advise againstpulling them out. Now, I have never cleaned them, so I did pull half out and clean in DI.
I cleaned the sump (what a job)...had to chisel the bottom...haha!!

I put in a poly pre-filter on top of the bio-balls (the tray)....and put the foam piece on my pump(I didnot have it on).
I am hoping this helps lower my phosphates.
Again, thank you for the advice, I am just really nervous in pulling out the bio-balls with what I have read. I do have a lotof Live Rock in the tank. I am unsure of the exact amount but it is quite a bit.
-Sean

 

[bonkuba]

After re-reading your post, I may be mistaken, you may not be asking me to remove the bio-balls.
Also, you say to put a polyfilter where the water leaves the bio-balls chamber. I have one now on the top tray where the water goes in but where the bio-balls leave the chamber is under water. I have the original Oceanic sump (20 gal). I tried to find a pic of the Oceanic sump but I could not find any online.
By the way I feed every other day.
Again, I really appreciate the help!!
Sean

 

[jrmafia90]

I have a prefilter in mine.

 

[bonkuba]

Did you remove the bio-balls? If so is that where you put the pre-filter?
Also, last question....do you have the Oceanic Sump?
Sean

 

[rednekreef]

Originally Posted by bonkuba
I appreciate the reply, but I am VERY nervous in pulling out my bio-balls. There seems to be more on this board and many more on other boards that advise againstpulling them out. Now, I have never cleaned them, so I did pull half out and clean in DI.
I cleaned the sump (what a job)...had to chisel the bottom...haha!!

I put in a poly pre-filter on top of the bio-balls (the tray)....and put the foam piece on my pump(I didnot have it on).
I am hoping this helps lower my phosphates.
Again, thank you for the advice, I am just really nervous in pulling out the bio-balls with what I have read. I do have a lotof Live Rock in the tank. I am unsure of the exact amount but it is quite a bit.
-Sean

you don't have to be nervous of pulling out your bio balls....thing is...only rinse them with salt water...if you use fresh water it will eliminate the benificial bacteria. I used to rinse mine once a month because..they do collect a bunch of waste and produce trates. I did away with mine and just have live rock and a 6 inch deep sand bed in my fuge...it does the trick.

 

[bonkuba]

Is it hard to keep your fuge clean with the sand?....meaning how often do you have to clean it and how?
Actually I am tempted to get rid of them if my phosphates dont go down in a few days after I cleaned the sump and half of the bio-balls.
They are at about 1 (last week). I will test tomorrow and see if the level has dropped.
Sean

 

[rednekreef]

Originally Posted by bonkuba
Is it hard to keep your fuge clean with the sand?....meaning how often do you have to clean it and how?
Actually I am tempted to get rid of them if my phosphates dont go down in a few days after I cleaned the sump and half of the bio-balls.
They are at about 1 (last week). I will test tomorrow and see if the level has dropped.
Sean
I very rarely clean my fuge...there is no need really...the only part i do clean a little bit is the return chanber when i clean the filter on the Mag 9.<return pump> and when i do clean down there i just take the little vacume and suck up the little bit of debri,, but i have 15 Mexican turbo snails down there and a Pink Brittle starfish...they do a pretty good job keeping everything tidied up....Now Ill tell you why i took my bio balls out to begin with. My brother has a 55gallon, with a 20 gallon fuge, He bought some "Cheatomorpha" macro algea and put down there in the fuge. after a months time his Phosphates went to zero, the live rock and Live sand pretty much takes care of the TraTes., So i went and got my self another 55 gallon tank and made it a fuge, got rid of the wet dry with those bio balls, and after a while, <when the fuge got established> I have been holding steady at 0 on phosphates, and TraTes for almost 2 yrs now. I love my fuge. I do get alittle Cyano down there every now and again, I don't think i have quite enough flow down there, all i do is shut the lights off down there for a few days and it clears up.< I drip Kalk so i have the light on 24/7 on the fuge> But i put some new LR down there and with in a month, it is covered with Pinks and reds, green, and orange, and little yellow sponges, I take it out of there and put it in a big holding tank and sell it to the LFS. Any way, Im gettin off track. IMO I believe you will benifit greatly from removing your bioballs and going with nothing but "LS", LR and Cheato. I personally don't like Caulerpa, Macro algae, It will go sexual and dump all the impurities back into your water. I did take the inlet plate off the Wet/Dry <the hose plate coming from overflow> and built it in so that i can put a filter pad there...It catches the big chunks of food and debri, I clean it once a week when i do my water change. all the little stuff, the Fuge takes care of. I hope this helps you.

 

[rednekreef]

another thing is that a fuge is really not meant to be seen.....unless you have it like a display too, it doesn't hurt anything if is is alittle dirty. it wont foul up your water unless it getts really really really bad....but with some snails and a brittle......youll have it going on down there. My pod population is FAT! i have 3 Phycodelic manderins in a 55 gallon display, and all of them are fat from eating so many pods.

 

[bonkuba]

Thanks for taking the time to type that reply......really apprecaite it!

 

[dejaco]

Hope your phospates are coming down. My sump is a DIY from a 45 g. The previous
owner used to use bio balls. I removed them, now each chamber that used to have
bioballs is growing cheato algae. In my sump I have heaters, skimmers (2), 2 quiet one 6000 pumps, magnum 350 running solely carbon, grow lights, and blue bonded poly
filter material. My tank is a 210 with 330 ls of rock and a 4 - 6" dand bed. Amonia,
Nitrites, and Nitrates have all been zero since about day 39 of set up. I do weekly water changes in which I trat the change water only not the system. Parameters are fairly constant temp 78' F, NH3, NO3, & NO2 all zero, Ca - 480 - 500, and Alk 11.8/12.2 dKH.
I was very nervous setting up without the bioballs, but all the current writings say it's fine.

 

[maxalmon]

Why not convert the wet/dry to a fuge? Take the bioballs put'em in a 10g tank run your overflow and pump thur this while you yank the wet/dry out for modifications. Homedepot sells Acrylic sheets, just cut one to the width of your wet dry, maybe 8-10" tall, mount it on one side of the wetdry leaving enough room for the pump, do the same thing on the other side but make it a smaller space, maybe 2" run your overflow into this, pickup a coralife 2x9w 6500k light, mount it over the new fuge area. You can either use LS as a bed or you could also fill it up with LR rubble. The wet/dry will be out of service for 2-3 days as the sealant cures

 

[zman1]

If your water going in is good (PO4 free) then the Phosphates are being introduced from some where else. List your food types and feeding habits. This may be a source of phosphates and old Carbon filters may be leaching PO4.
DI fillers can release what they have taken out if not changed regularly, but you tested the water so this may not be a problem... just a side note.
I do on occasion syphon clean the bottom of the sump during water changes. Phosban reactor could help too....