putting stuff in my sump???

krautburner

krautburner

Member
I've got about a 48 gal reef tank with a 20gal tank for the sump (housing my heaters, pump, and protien skimmer)
should I put live sand or live rock in the sump?
how about some Inverts?
thanks in advance
Russ
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Originally Posted by maxalmon
I would skip on the LS in the sump and just add more LR, can't have enough....
I agree and I would add that LR rubble is better IMO in the sump as there is more surface area to catch detritus. You can smash a LR with a hammer to get smaller pieces.
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
I agree with the LR rubble, just make sure you deep clean the sump from time to time or you'll get a serious buildup of lightbrown detritus. Also consider adding one huge, boulder sized chunk of LR, work much like a RDSB as the larger the LR boulder the more anerobic it becomes. I've got a monster 25lb LR round boulder in my frag tank sump, I was having some nitrate issues and now they are down to almost zero...Not really nitrate issues but they were in the 30-40 range, all I did was add the fully cured boulder and a short time later my trates dropped to 10 and I did nothing else to the tank.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Originally Posted by maxalmon
I agree with the LR rubble, just make sure you deep clean the sump from time to time or you'll get a serious buildup of lightbrown detritus. Also consider adding one huge, boulder sized chunk of LR, work much like a RDSB as the larger the LR boulder the more anerobic it becomes. I've got a monster 25lb LR round boulder in my frag tank sump, I was having some nitrate issues and now they are down to almost zero...Not really nitrate issues but they were in the 30-40 range, all I did was add the fully cured boulder and a short time later my trates dropped to 10 and I did nothing else to the tank.
Good tip.
 
ketill

ketill

Member
other may feel differently. But i keep " Marine feeder shrimp" in my sump/fug and some snails ( mine are breeding like crazy in DT). And a few chunks of LR with LR rubble. And a good amount of chaeto.
 
krautburner

krautburner

Member
Originally Posted by Ketill
other may feel differently. But i keep " Marine feeder shrimp" in my sump/fug and some snails ( mine are breeding like crazy in DT). And a few chunks of LR with LR rubble. And a good amount of chaeto.


would that be a bad idea with nothing seperating the skimmer/pumps/heaters from the rest of the tank?
what about putting stuff in the overflow area?
bio balls?
snails?
neighbors cat?
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
Originally Posted by Ketill
other may feel differently. But i keep " Marine feeder shrimp" in my sump/fug and some snails ( mine are breeding like crazy in DT). And a few chunks of LR with LR rubble. And a good amount of chaeto.

Nothing wrong with this idea, just make sure you have filters over the pump intakes or you'll get shrimp puree..........One thing about chaeto a lot of reefer don't realize is that you need to constantly prune or remove sections of the chaeto so that you get whats called "nutrient export"
 
krautburner

krautburner

Member
I'm probably gonna pickup a "Backpack" refugium some time this year,
as well as upsize to a 70-90gal
so,
it's ok to throw hermets and snails in the sump (with no lights)?
I don't think I'm gonna do any plants in the sump
what kind of filter can I put on the pump?
 
rzande1

rzande1

Member
What about putting filter substrate into the sump? I have a large amount of eheim biological filter ball media that I could put into the sump. It could probably create enough of a depth that I could have alot of anarobic bacteria in it.
 
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