help, adding water and cleaning sump

[reedlog]

I am trying to add freshwater to compensate for evaporation and want to add it directly to my sump of my wet/dry filter. I have previously added it directly to the tank, and I feel it may be better to add it to the sump. Although, there is a lot of green algae/dust like dirt buildup on the bottom of the sump and I have no clue how to clean it. I don't want to stop the pump and drain the water, I would love to be able to just syphon it up, but being that the filter is on the ground inside my stand i can't exactly create a syphon, and it would be a very large inconvenience to remove it form the stand and place it on a higher level. How do you go about cleaning that junk before adding water directly to it, therefore allowing it to all mix up and return back in the tank. Thanks so much for advice

 

[zanski]

Pay the 75 to have someone come professionally clean your aquarium. They should have no problem helping you clean your sump. Heck, just watch what they do and your problem is solved for life. Just making sure you know to use RO fresh water! GOOD LUCK!

 

[reedlog]

pay to have someone do it? that takes all the fun out of maintaining my own tank!
It is RO/DI water every time i add top off, i just need to find a way to make an auto top off to have it consistently adding water

 

[murph]

What kind of sump is it? If possible just remove the filter media to a bucket of water siphoned from your tank and take a wet dry vac and suck out the debris from the bottom of the sump.
Refill the sump with new water and you have cleaned your sump and preformed a water change.
I also agree with your comment reed. Why in the world would someone enter a hobby and then pay someone else to have all the fun

 

[tankslave]

Wet dry vacuum great idea....if you don't have one there is a little bulge pump like used for syphoning keresone for camping heaters, etc. about $8

 

[jdecter]

of course the cheapest way is to simply put some hose in and suck at the end until it starts or use a syphon that you get to clean out your substrate in the tank, but I assume theres not enough room to do the old fashion push and pull motion to get the water flowing?
When all else fails a quick suck on the end and a quicker eye to keep from getting a mouth full always works =) and of course feel free to fill it with extra water so you have plenty to suck out and get all the extra "dust", then just refill tot he level you need.
I tend to make extra RO/DI water in the garage and anytime I notice it getting low I just add a bit to to my system.
Just make sure dust can't get into the container while its waiting to be used, and besides letting the water "stir" while you wait to use it allows for salinity to really mix well.