wet dry cleaning?

[brucewrs]

Do you clean under the bio balls at all?I have a pro clear 400 gallon and was looking under the bio balls and it was pretty bad.I even have a feather duster growing under there.I was thinking about cleaning out my sump but dont know if I should suck up all of the gunk.That gunk might be good???My nitrates are a little high but I have 0 nitrites.

 

[cgrant]

Yup!

I clean mine up, i have of those python tubes, they work well.

 

[rcdude1990]

i dont think ur sappose to clean the bio balls it self since they have bacteria in them but i dont no im only 3 months into this hobby and my LFS saids not to clean them

 

[cgrant]

when the tank is that new no dont clean them, i would start at say around 6 months!
Clean ~25% of them monthly.
edit: when i say "clean" swoosh them around in a bucket of old tank water during a water change.

 

[rcdude1990]

o ok cool thanks a lot ill keep that in mind

 

[reefkprz]

I would reccomend removing the bioballs completly and replacing with liverock frags you will get 50 times the benifit from the rock frags than the balls and I would reccomend cleaning out that "gunk" since it is most likely just waste thats decomposing in your tank. My custom sump has a waste trap that I clean religiously. I also do not use any sponges since they just become places for waste to be trapped and rot ( unless you clean them a lot its best not to have them.)

 

[joe 09]

i clean out the bottom of my wet dry with the python at every water change.it is good to get all that junk out.