Help! adding water, cleaning sump

[reedlog]

I am trying to add freshwater to compensate for evaporation and want to add it directly to my sump of my wet/dry filter. I have previously added it directly to the tank, and I feel it may be better to add it to the sump. Although, there is a lot of green algae/dust like dirt buildup on the bottom of the sump and I have no clue how to clean it. I don't want to stop the pump and drain the water, I would love to be able to just syphon it up, but being that the filter is on the ground inside my stand i can't exactly create a syphon, and it would be a very large inconvenience to remove it form the stand and place it on a higher level. How do you go about cleaning that junk before adding water directly to it, therefore allowing it to all mix up and return back in the tank. Thanks so much for advice

 

[Anonymous]

I clean mine with a turkey baster and a bucket. I remove as much detirus as possible and then enough water to equal my made up fresh SW. I shut off the valve to my auto top off and then just suck out the bad water and add the freshly made SW. Hope that helps.

 

[LA-Lawman]

or.... shut off the main pump and let the sump fill as usual. drain the sump using a another pump. use a shopvac and vac all the crap out of there. add fresh s/w.....

viola.... insta clean sump and a water change!!!

I do the sump cleanout every 6 mos.

 

[fungia]

if you don't stop the return pump, alot of the detritus will go back into the tank when you try to clean it. i would put some filter socks on the return pump intake and stir up the detritus and algae by hand. the dirt will collect on the filter sock and you can remove it after a day. but some will get back into your tank so be prepared for cloudy water.