Is it good or bad to accumulate detrus in your sump?

[M.E.Milz]

I am setting up a 38"x28" sump for my new tank. I plan to fill the sump with live rock rubble, and will probably try to grow some macros as well. To prevent my return pump from sucking air, the intake will be connected to an elbow so as to draw water from near the bottom of the sump. As a result, I cannot keep a sandbed in the sump (because the sand will only end up in the pump).

However, I can glue some fairly short strips of acrylic (say 1"-2" high) accross the bottom of the sump so as to form mini partitions to contain a fairly shallow sandbed. But these partitions will also "catch" any detrus that enters the sump.

Any thoughts on whether a shallow sandbed (1"-2"), and the accumulation of detrus, would be good? Or would a bare bottom sump (except for the live rock rubble) be better?

By the way, I plan to have a 6" DSB in my display tank (about 400g).

 

[danmhippo]

I setup a partition that is 12" high forming a complete section of refugium in the sump to hold a DSB of 4" depth. There is 3 more baffles after the refugium partition and that have effectively accumlated detritus and sand. I do not yet have experienced sand in the pump.

Weekly, I stir up the detritus in the sump to feed corals in the tank and manually remove any sand grains too close to the last baffle to the pump intake.

 

[SPC]

I have the same thing as Dan only I have about a 6" partition. I also placed L/R on the sand at this point to try and hold it down. Once the sand has settled and accumulated bacteria etc... it will stay in place. Before this time it won't matter what you do IMO to keep sand out of the pump, the sand from the tank will even make it there. I feel that a refugium needs sand in order to have a wide range of critters.
Steve

 

[M.E.Milz]

Thanks for the input (although I am a little surprised that more people didn't have an opinion on this).

I don't want to use a partition much higher than 3"-4" since I probably won't run the sump with more than a 6-8"" total water depth. I want to make sure I have enough capacity left in the sump to hold all the water when I shut down all of my pumps. If I use a higher partition, I may cause some waterfall action near the pump intake, which will send bubbles into the tank. Of course, the tank is not yet set up, so I don't know how shallow I will need to maintain the water level in the sump.

In any event, I think that my best bet is to install a pair of 3"-4" partitions to separate the central portion of the sump from the outlet area where my pump return intake and my heaters will be located, and the inlet area where the water enters the sump from the tank and the skimmer pump intake and outake is located. I can then fill the central area (between the two partitions) with a 2" sandbed and probably 4"-6" of live rock rubble.

 

[Lynn]

Been wondering this myself lately. I have a 40 gal sump with the front (lengthwise) divided off with a 4" high piece of acrylic. About 5" wide. This I kinda use for a refurgium. There is quite a bit of detrus in the sump side, on the pumps etc. I don't know if I want to stir it up and add it to the tank??? Hopefully we'll get more replies on this matter

 

[Osama]

Mike; In my sump I have the drain from the tank , the inlet & oulet for the skimmer at one end of the sump. I have a partition at that end and another one at the other end , the return to the tank end. I made the partitions about 2 inches higher than the sand bed and placed some live rocks & macro in between the partitions. The return from the skimmer is below the water level in the sump. the bottom of the return is at about 3 inches from the bottom. once the plants attached to the rock & sand bed with some gravel everythinhg worked fine.
Since I was not sure of how things will turn out I had a couple of strips of plexi glued to the sides at each end (guides) that would allow me to drop in sheets of plexiglass in which I had drilled holes for water flow. I used those for a while then discarded them. It maybe a good idea to build in the guides in your sump for future flexibility you can then put in different heigh partitions as you see fit to optimize circulation & decrease bubbles returning to the tank.
good Luck

 

[M.E.Milz]

Thanks Osama. The description of your set-up is a lot like what I have envisioned. The partitions will be pretty easy for me to install since I already have an "S"-shaped partition (when looking down from above) included in my sump to increase the length of the water path from my inlets to my return pump.

Once I add the sand to the sump, I will try to anchor it with small to medium sizes of live rock. I think I will also take some live rock and break it up into very small pieces so that I can put a layer of rubble over the top of the sand bed in between the larger pieces. This should help to keep the sand in place.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's a nice arrangement that makes it easy to draw off sediment, should you decide you want to: http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/RCM/RCM/Aq ... ilter.html