How often do you guys change/clean your sump?

[Biggen]

The topic pretty much says it all. My sump is pretty bad looking. Hard crusty brown precipitation is covering the sides and bottom of the sump. Everytime I go to work on it, I end up stirring up all kind of "junk" and my sump pump puts it into the tank. Takes about an hour to settle so my tank isn't cloudy anymore.

Just wondering how often you guys break it down to clean it. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a new sump ($3 Rubbermaid 56QT container) so I could take the old one out. I figure that it would be easier to simply swap sumps from time to time and clean the old one out later rather than to have to rush to clean it to get it back in operation.

 

[Anemoneman]

Never.
I occasionally remove larger deposits and salt creep. I clean the pump inlet strainer when it plugs. I pull out the Berlin Classic to clean it (pain in the butt) and the pump too. But I have never had the sump out. I once drained it to fix a leaky bulkhead fitting tho.
You plan of periodically swapping out the dirty sump for a clean one sounds like a good idea. Go for it!

 

[Brad]

dirty sump..

Personally, I think a healthy sump is a dirty sump. I have a sand bed in mind that I intend to vacuum small portions of every now and then. I would never vacuum any more than a small portion at any one time so as not to disturb things too much.

Well..I will wipe the dried salt off the inside of the glass (above the water line).

 

[Biggen]

Well I don't know what the heck I am doing wrong then that is causing all this brown precipitation on the sides and bottom. I can't even see the bottom of the thing because of all the brown crust covering it.

I'll go ahead with my sump swapping plan and hope it doesn't get as dirty this time. Thanks for the responses guys.