tank & sump maintanance

afreshoutlook · #1 01-01-2006, 05:33 PM

I'm planning my regular maintance & landscaping, my question is: with the sump, do you ever clean this out & riinse off the bio balls etc.??
Thanks
Dwight

saltynuts · #2 01-01-2006, 05:53 PM

i clean off my rock with a power head.
then i vac out sump and all that bad stuff on the bottom of sump.
and do water change at the same time.

DanG · #3 01-01-2006, 06:39 PM

If you rinse the bio balls, make sure to use tank water and not tap water as you can kill the beneficial bacteria.

untamed · #4 01-01-2006, 06:42 PM

I don't use bioballs...

...but my comment is that if you really need bioballs, and your system is using them for biologic filtration, then you have to very careful doing anything that would disturb them. Cleaning the bioballs would have a catastrophic effect on your tank if they were the main source of filtration.

At best, you could remove/clean/exchange a small portion of them at a time, allowing weeks between cleaning/exchanging.