Putting fish in a sump...

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derekdmac

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 19, 2011
8
0
1
calgary
Just curious....

I have a 180gal Cichlid tank with about 30 fish in it, it has a 90gal sump... What I was thinking about doing was shutting down my 33gal tropical tank and putting 30 of the little guys in the sump and planting it. Is this a bad idea, or can it work?

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
 
if you put fish in a sump, it isn't a sump, it's a fish tank.
so are you asking if putting fish in a fish tank will work? yes.
of course then you won't have a sump for the 180...
 
^ wut?

Sure you can, just make sure they won't get sucked into the return pump. I had that happen once, which made my regular tank look like a snow globe. But instead of snow, it was scales and guts.
 
what are you using for a pump? I would be concerned that the flow might be to much for the little guys and they would either get sucked into the pump, or up against whatever barrier you have. I have seen some of the salt folks have a refugium in their sump. So the concept is sound, but putting it into practice may be tough.

I linked a 10g and a 55g with a PVC bridge combining the systems with a power head moving the water between the tanks. Worked for close to a month, until I found a mated pair of Jewel cichlids a 4 and 6 inches having a bad time in the 10g. They had swum thru the bridge. Needless to say the experiment fails when fish die from it.
 
Do it all the time with all kinds of fish. Just remember they are two tanks connected now so more bio load. Add more media and don't overstock and it's no worries at all. Then they are ready to go to the big tank without acclimation
 
If your sump has a baffle you could also use a big piece of matala matt or whatever it is called to create a little barrier that they couldn't go through as well?
 
Some good points so far.

When I am running both of my pumps for a total of 4,200GPH, it is too much flow for the little 1" barbs I am growing out in my 150G sump.

I am actually using Matala sheets as mentioned as a divider to keep the fry from the pump compartment.

I am looking forward to removing them from the sump because they are starting to create a bit of waste down there. My overflows drain directly into my mechanical filtration, so that means all the fry's fish poop ends up in my bio-media...not a good thing.
 
It works but makes the sump and tank harder to keep clean. I prefer to keep them seperate but one setup does have fish in the sump.

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As they grow it will increase the bio load more and more and some might accidentally swim into the return. Net off all exits and u should be fine

-Andrew
 
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