Sump vacuum

jenkinscrew

jenkinscrew

Premium Member
I was wondering if this is possible or if anyone has done this or has other better options. I haven’t been able to find anything so throwing it out there for suggestions.

While I was working on the plumbing for my new tank I wondered if it was possible to hookup a siphon system (like the python) to one of the ports on my return manifold, like you would to a kitchen sink, to have a built in sand vacuum. Thinking I could use it both for sump/refugium sand vacuuming and even display tank vacuuming, sand or no sand. It would be able to connect and disconnect easily, be able to stop flow to let sand settle and have it drain right back into the sump into a filter sock or external container to catch and remove everything.

Let me know your thoughts because I don’t even know if this will work, but hoping to come up with a sump/sand vacuum solution.
 
I have thought about a similar solution, but abandoned the idea as being overly complicated.

I recently bought the python cleaner (using their venturi attached to a faucet as the suction force). I have a utility sink within ~25 ft of my tank so this has worked very well for me for both sand and sump cleaning (also I found the the longer cleaning tube to be the most effective). On my 90 gallon tank, I clean the sand bed for ~15 gals worth and then use the same tubing to send 15 gallons of new salt water to the tank. Or if the sump is dirty, ill use the same setup to clean the detritus from the sump. Either way, it takes less than an hour if you have the DI water pre-made, I wish I would have discovered this years ago.


Using your return pump (assuming its suction is strong enough) would require require adding and aligning a 5-6 of valves and fillings to:

1 Send the dirty sump water to a drain or sink

2 Send the sand cleaning water to waste or a felt sock in the sump.

Plus there is always the risk when cleaning the sand bed of sucking sand through your (quite expensive) return pump and possibly damaging it.

If you used a cheap and powerful enough stand alone pump as the suction source for this purpose, it would definitely simplify the plumbing - essentially requiring only plumbing to allow lining the pump discharge up either to a sump sock or to waste. The suction side of the pump would be attached to a piece of tubing that would allow connecting tubing long enough for sump cleaning - or even longer tubing for sand cleaning using a python type tube. Also, you would likely need to start a siphon to the suction to prime the pump.

An effective way to vacuum your sand bed is to use the python cleaner tube siphoning back to the sump into a filter sock. This allows you to spend as much time as possible cleaning the sand without worrying about filling buckets/trash cans...

So I have concluded the best way for me is to use the python venturi to remove water (either from the sump or while cleaning the sand) - or a python tube siphoning back to a filter sock in the sump for sand bed cleanup only.

Hope this helps
Dave
 
I tried a canister filter to act as a vacuum, but that didn't work. Instead, I used a pass-through pump from Cobalt and some tubing, plus a filter sock on the output. It's not perfect, but it gets the detritus out beautifully. Bigger stuff clogs up the pump so I have to take it apart once or twice to remove shells or similar, but other than that, it works very well.
 
I periodically just actually vacuum my sump with a wet/dry vacuum. I have enough saltwater on hand to replace the lost water. It removes 100% of the debris and detritus on the bottom.
 
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