Who puts sand in their sump?

[ca1ore]

I run a cryptic zone in a separate sump that includes sand. The chaeto section in my sump is BB because I light it both from the top and from underneath.

 

[ericarenee]

I have sand, rock, pods, chaeto (and will soon add mangroves) in the 27 gallon refugium section of my 65 gallon sump (located the basement directly below the 40 gallon breeder display tank in the living room). It's meant to be another display tank of its own merit, but being in the sump it's doing double duty as a natural filter for the display.

The refugium is also totally isolated from the skimmer and return sections so there is no sand, rock, chaeto or anything else in those sections.

with the Mangrove plants you MUST Test your Potassium. I Starting to have mine die out then realized they zap the potassium out of the water then start to die. as well as other things not do so well. Yet another thing i dose now...

 

[DavidinGA]

Personally, come time for a water change I use my sump as an easy way to suck out all the detritus and if I had sand down there it'd just be a giant detritus settling pit. I'm not a proponent of sand in the sump...

 

[ericarenee]

Personally, come time for a water change I use my sump as an easy way to suck out all the detritus and if I had sand down there it'd just be a giant detritus settling pit. I'm not a proponent of sand in the sump...

Sump should be equipment only refugium with sand should be in a different tank or atleast at the end of the sump with some type of mechanical filter to keep its sediment from the sump.

 

[Carmen2]

Sump should be equipment only refugium with sand should be in a different tank or atleast at the end of the sump with some type of mechanical filter to keep its sediment from the sump.

This will be in the middle of my sump, with the filter sock and skimmer on one side and the heater and pump on the other side. I have baffles separating everything, but I'm thinking if I have the sand and rock in a container that fits the middle section, that would help contain the sand. The water would be flowing over the top of the container, little chance for sand getting into equipment, at least I hope so. I'm trying to get more diversity in the water in the form of copepods, etc. Almost two years old, and I don't see a lot of that going on, at least in my eyes. Wanted to give them a safe breeding ground. and eventually, my fish will really appreciate it.

 

[ericarenee]

This will be in the middle of my sump, with the filter sock and skimmer on one side and the heater and pump on the other side. I have baffles separating everything, but I'm thinking if I have the sand and rock in a container that fits the middle section, that would help contain the sand. The water would be flowing over the top of the container, little chance for sand getting into equipment, at least I hope so. I'm trying to get more diversity in the water in the form of copepods, etc. Almost two years old, and I don't see a lot of that going on, at least in my eyes. Wanted to give them a safe breeding ground. and eventually, my fish will really appreciate it.

you will be fine putting the sand in a container..like that.. Its actually best i think

 

[dmac15]

I have a fuge section with sand in it as well, I probably have the smallest fuge on here, 4g, but still have pods crawling all over it. I have ~2-3in of sand, rocks and rubble and a jebao wp 10 keeping it moving. I use the fuge for problem critters, pod breeding grounds and live rock production.

My fuge part of sump is probably 7-8 gals tops maybe even 6. CRAWLING 1 bag of live sand and chaeto