Sump/Refugium Maintenance

[JW3571]

My sump has been up and running for 1 month now. What types of maintenance should i be doing? How often do i need to cleam my submersible pump? Alot of crap has ended up at the bottom of the sump. Do I try to suck that out at the next water change or leave it? Also, now my Chaeto is starting to grow, do I just let it go? It looks like some of it is starting to float around? Do I just need to add more rock to keep it down? Thanks.

[Bandsaw]

I usually vacuum the bottom of my sump during a water change every couple of months.

Every two or three weeks I rinse my Cheato during a water change. It is unreal how much detritus the cheato will capture.

Personally, I find my cheato grows better when it has room to grow. Every time I rinse my cheato, I take out a bunch. By the time I need to rinse the cheato comes around, it has grown in again. I have no problem with that. It means the cheato is doings its job - Exporting nutrients.

[scubasteve06]

I trim my chaeto back once a month. Although when you rinse it, what do you do with the pods? Just forget about them? I know it sounds crazy, but when I trim my chaeto I try to find as many of the bigger pods as possible and put them in my display so my mandarin gets them. I figure the more he has the better.

[Bandsaw]

I drain out about 3/4 of a 5 gallon pail of tank water, rinse the cheato in that by dipping chunks of cheato in and giving it a swirl. I think most of the pods hang on for dear life and does not really affect their population. Once all the crap in the rinse water settles, I go through and pick out the sea stars that get washed away and put them back in the fuge or display tank.

If you ever saw what gets trapped in the cheato as far as detritus goes, I think you would agree that it is better to get rid of all that gunk and suffer a small loss of pods (that will quickly repopulate).

[williamjhitchcock]

I stuck pumps in all my chambers of my sump to keep junk from building up on the bottom of my sump. My sump stays really clean now.

[Jake007]

As far as the Chaeto, it is better if it tumbles which will expose various surfaces to the light. I pull some out every two weeks.

As far as sump maintenance, use your judgement. I recently cleaned mine out since I dropped a bag of carbon in and I think it really helped after looking at all of the nastie stuff I pulled out. As far as pump maintenance. I look for decreased flow or noise as an indication, otherwise I leave it alone. Could be 3-4 months.

[JW3571]

Is it okay to put pumps in the sump?