I keep the foam in a plastic bucket standing in the sump; it's drilled on the bottom, has an eggcrate platform supporting the foam above it. Ideally, a cut-to-fit 2 or 3 inch sheet of 30ppi foam on the bottom, with a couple 1-inch sheets of 20ppi layered on top of that. If you rinse the top sheet daily or a couple times a week, it doesn't even begin to clog and virtually nothing comes out of it when you pick it up, no mess at all. Rinses in a few seconds outside under a hose, or in winter I just squeeze it out under running water in the laundry tub.
If you go longer between cleanings of that initial stage, as I often did when working remotely from home for three weeks at a time, the foam will begin to clog and you will find water standing on top of it. As that head-pressure builds up the water is forced through the foam almost as if in a canister. If you try to pick up that foam under those circumstances, you will indeed create a cloudy mess with the stuff squeezing out and sneaking down through the bucket; the solution is to turn off the pump for a few minutes, which allows that standing water to drain away. Once it's gone, pick up the top layer of foam with no problems; actually, if it's gone that long without a cleaning, I will probably rinse out both top layers, maybe even the bottom one as well. If you keep the bucket or other foam container elevated so that it's bottom is not submerged in the sump, letting it sit with the pump off for a few minutes lets it drain nicely, allowing you to carry the whole thing to the sink without creating a drippy mess.
Depending upon the design of your sump, it might be a good idea to drill one or a couple overflow holes near the top of the bucket, which would allow you to control where the overflow goes if it ever gets that high. In a planted tank that could sometimes happen over the course of three weeks without a cleaning, so I always had an "emergency overflow mechanical prefilter" pad somewhere in the flow path between the bottom of the bucket and the inflow to the biofiltration material to catch any miscellaneous solids before they got in there.
I emphasize that all this foam is strictly aimed at mechanical filtration. Poret is also terrific for biofiltration, but that's a different part of my sump. In my case I am on a well, so unless I were to rinse with hot water (which I don't) I would not be endangering my bacterial colony by cleaning it this way. If you are on chlorinated water, you must accept that you will be harming the bacteria in the mechanical foam; as long as you don't mess with the biofilter part, this won't matter.
If you go longer between cleanings of that initial stage, as I often did when working remotely from home for three weeks at a time, the foam will begin to clog and you will find water standing on top of it. As that head-pressure builds up the water is forced through the foam almost as if in a canister. If you try to pick up that foam under those circumstances, you will indeed create a cloudy mess with the stuff squeezing out and sneaking down through the bucket; the solution is to turn off the pump for a few minutes, which allows that standing water to drain away. Once it's gone, pick up the top layer of foam with no problems; actually, if it's gone that long without a cleaning, I will probably rinse out both top layers, maybe even the bottom one as well. If you keep the bucket or other foam container elevated so that it's bottom is not submerged in the sump, letting it sit with the pump off for a few minutes lets it drain nicely, allowing you to carry the whole thing to the sink without creating a drippy mess.
Depending upon the design of your sump, it might be a good idea to drill one or a couple overflow holes near the top of the bucket, which would allow you to control where the overflow goes if it ever gets that high. In a planted tank that could sometimes happen over the course of three weeks without a cleaning, so I always had an "emergency overflow mechanical prefilter" pad somewhere in the flow path between the bottom of the bucket and the inflow to the biofiltration material to catch any miscellaneous solids before they got in there.
I emphasize that all this foam is strictly aimed at mechanical filtration. Poret is also terrific for biofiltration, but that's a different part of my sump. In my case I am on a well, so unless I were to rinse with hot water (which I don't) I would not be endangering my bacterial colony by cleaning it this way. If you are on chlorinated water, you must accept that you will be harming the bacteria in the mechanical foam; as long as you don't mess with the biofilter part, this won't matter.
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