Some thoughts on my sump

[HERM]

The best way I've found to keep my sumps clean:

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/showthread.php?51127-How-I-set-up-floss-on-my-wet-dry-filters

No other sponges or whatever.

I would like to add that human OCD is not always healthy for fish. Please leave that sump alone for at least two months (preferably 6) at a time between cleaning or else you're not gonna let it mature and perform well. Detritus in the sump is not a bad thing and from the looks of it the only thing I can see is that you don't like to look at a "dirty" sump. Easiest fix is shut the doors to your stand and don't look at it. Even if you see it, remind yourself that what you find visually unpleasant does not hinder the function of the sump. Also remind yourself that the more often your mess with your sump the more you're adversely effecting the home of your fish.

+1

[ScorpiosWife]

Believe it or not, I did leave it be for a very long time. Quite a few months, in fact. All I did was change the blue filter material. Only after accidentally stirring it up and watching it cloud the tank did my OCD kick in & I started the weekly cleaning. I will leave it alone for a few more months again. :)

[SunnyHouTX]

Please do

I "accidentally" stir my sumps every time I do a water change and even though the tank gets cloudy when I turn everything back on, all of it gets cleared up in no time, all the particles caught by the floss in the sumps before getting to the bio balls or caught in the canister filters.

[ScorpiosWife]

Gonna add a canister & close the doors to curb my self diagnosed OCD, lol.

Still no luck searching for what these little critters are, good, bad or indifferent. Didn't ever see them before I introduced a decoration I bought from another member who had it sitting outside & I don't have them in any of my other tanks.

Trust me, I checked immediately, lol.

I rinsed it off and let it sit for a few days before I put it in but there was no way to get inside the tiny little drain holes in the bottom of it. Now I got these little wigglers that I hope aren't harmful. They're very hard to see they're so small & they don't seem to have a color other than maybe white? You can only see them in the light & a picture would be impossible.

[troy tucker]

i would say they are a bad thing. i have seen them befor, in others tanks.

don't know why I thought this,(blond min.) I thought the poopies were being washed back in to the tank.
The slow water in the sump lets all the solids fall to the bottom.

[ScorpiosWife]

Thanks, Herm. That's probably what they are. Just lovely. How do I kill them? I just read Jungle Parasite Tablets work pretty quickly, but does anyone else have any input?

[Andrew_B]

I've found one of the better filters for debris is a Penguin 350 HOB ( I guess emperor 400 would work too, but its 2x as much). I use an Eheim canister plus a Penguin on my fry/growout type tanks that get overfed. I just toss in blue filter pads and just rinse them out every couple weeks. They push a lot of water and gather a lot of the tanks garbage. Would help keep stuff out of your wet/dry.

[ScorpiosWife]

Thanks, Andrew. I've tried the Penguin 350, Penguin 200, Emperor 280 & a little Aqueon I had in my fry tank. None could pull water from it. Either the intake tube was on the wrong side & got in the way of the part that sucks the water back into the tank or the water level was too low for them to operate properly & I can't increase the water level because then I'd submerge my bio balls which renders them useless. Gonna buy another canister & let it do its thang.

[Andrew_B]

Nono - Just use the HOB on the tank itself. Let it catch debris before it even reaches the sump

[ScorpiosWife]

Cant hang an HOB on an acrylic tank. No worky.

[Andrew_B]

Were you talking of using canister in the main tank or in your sump to clean the debris?

[troy tucker]

if it ant broke don't fix it.

as for the pods. they may have been in the fish all this time.

[ScorpiosWife]

LOL @ Troy "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Don't think whatever these little guys are have been there long. I stalk my fish tanks & with a black background & a flashlight, nothing can escape me! *insert evil laugh* LOL!

Andrew, the canister was suggested for the sump to get the icky poop dirt off the bottom so my self-diagnosed OCD doesn't have me cleaning the thing every week.

[troy tucker]

you prob. never seen them in the old substrate. now thats gone you are finding them.

[SunnyHouTX]

Dawn, check out my sumps before/after going to the Aquarium meeting.