Need a cheap way to clean my sump?
 

I can see a lot of dirt building up in there and would like to clean it. Do I need to buy a canister, or is there some cheaper method? Thanks for any advice.

Use a shop vac to clean it out during water changes.

do you have a filter sock that your drain runs into? if not that will help with a lot of the debris coming into the sump.

Yes, I do use a filter sock. Maybe the debris is from the one week that it got plugged and water was flowing over it. Also I used to have a crushed coral bed in there that I removed last year. I'm thinking some of this stuff remains from that. Not sure. I was going to use an old canister filter I had, but the motor was busted.

Is there any way to use a power head or something?