Sump Question

[Wormo3188]

I have recently noticed a lot more ditritius building up in my sump behind the sponge that seperates the two complartments. The first compartment is the one filling up with, what is almost turning into mud, while the next, which contains the skimmer and the return pump is fairly clean. I'm worried about this mud building up and creating a problem later on by releasing nutrients, is there any way to clean this out? If I remove the sponge that holds the mud back, will it just get skimmed out, or will it just end up back in the tank? What is the bets way to handle this situation?

 

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why there would be a sponge separating the compartments. Here is what I would do in your situation.


Turn the pumps off so that the water stops flowing through the sump. Remove the sponge and clean it out. Take a turkey baster and suck out all of the deitrus that has collected in that first compartment. Then turn the system back on.

That way, all of that stuff in the future can be removed by the skimmer, and you can just keep cleaning the collection cup in the skimmer. Plus all of that gunk will not be re released into the main tank

Hope that helped

Have fun!

 

[ChrisRD]

Syphoning it out during a water change would probably work too...