Hi all, had a Red Sea Max S-400 running for around 9-10 weeks now, have been carrying out weekly 10% water changes, regular tests etc. However, it's just occurred to me that when I kept much smaller tanks 10 yrs ago, I used to clean out the canister filter and pumps each month, so I should probably do that too on the sumped tank!
It used to be quite a quick job to disassemble the circ pumps, small skimmer and rinse out the filter media in the old water I'd removed for the water change. However, doing all this on a larger system is making me nervous..
Have bought food grade citric acid but I'm not sure how long to soak my circulation pumps for, a lot of posts suggest overnight but that seems really long to me and I'm concerned about oxygen levels in the water if everything is off for too long? I'm thinking of doing my weir combs and circ pumps every 4-6 weeks, do the main return pump at the same time? How often to scrub out the skimmer as I'm aware with a deep clean it'll need breaking in again? Arghhh so many questions, any tips on how to make this more of a simpler routine the better thanks!
It used to be quite a quick job to disassemble the circ pumps, small skimmer and rinse out the filter media in the old water I'd removed for the water change. However, doing all this on a larger system is making me nervous..
Have bought food grade citric acid but I'm not sure how long to soak my circulation pumps for, a lot of posts suggest overnight but that seems really long to me and I'm concerned about oxygen levels in the water if everything is off for too long? I'm thinking of doing my weir combs and circ pumps every 4-6 weeks, do the main return pump at the same time? How often to scrub out the skimmer as I'm aware with a deep clean it'll need breaking in again? Arghhh so many questions, any tips on how to make this more of a simpler routine the better thanks!