Fish in sump

[olsenshouse]

Can fish live in the sump? I have a 40gallon sump sectioned off into 3 sections. Left side is where my skimmer is and the incoming water. Middle is my refuge with chaeto and copepods and the right side is where the return pump is pumping water back into my tank. Can I have fish in any of these sections of the sump?

 

[pyton]

you can but it is not advised because they might eat pods that other things in aquarium might need. me just read if you have a section in your sump it is not refugium but a biological filter system. refugium is small disply just above the tank with small natural flow into the tank. you can read on it at about.com search saltwater 101. great info skimmer told me about.

 

[Krish]

What is your reason for wanting to put a fish in your sump and also what type?

 

[JoeKnowsReefs.com]

As previously stated, it may not be best to have one in your sump...mainly the refugium. You don't want anything eating up the pods you're breeding in the fuge. Also, I can only imagine the 3 compartments aren't very large themselves...probably not too many fish you could safely house there anyways...

 

[GoCougsKev]

I have some guppies in my fug, 25 gallon section. I dont ever see the guppies going after the pods in my cheato and they do a good job at keeping things fairly clean. they re-produce all time so they maintain their numbers well. They do not produce a lot of waste and I feed them nothing so they make good scavengers....

 

[Chichas01]

you have guppies in a saltwater tank? gotta see pics of that.

 

[jrgilles]

guppies? Really? Sounds kind of cool. Lets see some pics

Intriguing.....

 

[TheKraken]

On my planted tanks I keep the water level high and absolutely no restrictions on the drain. As food makes it to the sump just fine I keep a few sump fish to scavenge. Somehow the African cichlid fry adore Mr. Toads Wild Ride and end up in the sump too.

In salt you want a hospital tank to treat any sickness and medicate. If you are introducing a fish or giving a time out the sump is fine provided that they don't eat the pods and in my case macro algae (tangs). I have sinking pellets and a filter sock so I do not get as much food transfer. For example I have a decorator crab chilling right now as he was a gift and I do not want to think about tearing down the rock work should he need to come out!

 

[GoCougsKev]

I will try and get some pics of this week. I learned from Jonathan Rowe that you can easily acclimate guppies to saltwater. Jonathan kept a few guppies in his massive overflow.

 

[jrgilles]

Awesome. Is there a benefit to doing this? I guess they help keep it cleaner? Seems pretty cool if they don't do any harm.

Would be curious how you acclimated them. Something I can do in a 5 gallon bucket or something?

 

[GoCougsKev]

I have no prooven benifits, but they seem to keep things a little cleaner without sacroficing anything. Yes, 5 gallon bucket is fine. I acclimated my first two femals and one male over a 4 day period which worked well. I probably could have acclimated them faster, but then I might have killed them too! It only took a few weeks before there were little fry in the sump. Give it a try, really nothing to loose.

 

[IPisces]

Are they the little feeder guppies or fancier guppies?

 

[justforfun]

From exp.. if you have any LR in re area wit the fish chances of them getting smashed is really good( you will forget you have fish down there start moving rock and smash one....or two like I did then found a week later when my tank decided.to start cycling ........DON'T DO IT

 

[returnofsid]

Are they guppies or Mollies? Mollies are actually a Marine Species and can be easily acclimated to saltwater, even breeding in saltwater. Guppies, on the other hand, are a freshwater species and won't live long, in full saltwater.

As for keeping fish in a fuge, not at all recommended. I can see doing it, if you have a trouble fish, or a fish in need of healing, or protection from other fish, SHORT TERM. Long term, this won't be a very healthy environment, as the fuge area would typically be too small. Also, one of the primary purposes of a refugium, is to provide a safe (refuge) place for pods to reproduce, without the fear of predation, from fish. Placing a fish in a refugium, defeats this purpose. Now, if you were to keep Mollies, in your fuge, it wouldn't be quite as bad, as they're more of a herbivore, so would much on your Macro Algae, as apposed to feeding on your pod population. However, they're still opportunistic feeders and will eat some pods.

 

[IPisces]

Thats what I have right now is a "trouble" fish. I have a male and female chromis of some kind...haven't figured out what kind yet...and they were getting along for a while and he started being a real butthead, beating up on her. She couldnt even come out to eat... so he has been banished to the sump for a few days. I am hoping the female will come out of hiding and after a few days..or a week...putting him back in the tank. Or back to the LFS.

I too, have heard of mollies being acclimated to saltwater, but not guppies.

 

[Airphotog]

Back in the 80s I had a 130 reef tank and had a smaller tank plumbed into it. The smaller tank had Caulerpa and black mollies. The mollies got quite large in the saltwater compared to freshwater mollies and were breeding like crazy. I would scoop a few babies up and drop them in the main tank for a nice snack.

 

[GoCougsKev]

They are not the fancy guppies. From my understanding they do not fair too well in saltwater, although I have heard of folks successfully doing it. My guppies are the plain feeder type. I actually did have some black mollys in the sump, but they got sucked into the return pump when I forgot to re-install a filter that isolated them from the pump.