Piles of crud in sump

[Scoot]

I took the suggest of another earlier post on a similar topic, and have ordered small-mesh filter socks for my sump overflow line, and I'm waiting for that to arrive, but I've still got an amazing amount of crud in my sump. Seems like everything settles there. Looks like a light-brown power at the bottom. Particularly in the first chamber where the skimmer is.

(layout of sump/fuge is skimmer chamber -> bubble trap -> small fuge w/chaeto and LR -> chamber with return pump)

Any time I do a top-off into the sump, this crud gets stirred up, and flows up into the display tank.

I've added filter pads to my bubble trap, to the overflow, and I'm cleaning the filters in my Emperor 400 HOB daily, but the crud just keeps accumulating.

I have a couple snails in the sump/fuge tank, do I need more? I could transfer more of the astrea's (sp) down to the fuge where the might do more good.

I'm thinking about building a canister-type filter with multiple layers of pads and sponges, that will take the overflow line, then dump it into the skimmer chamber of the sump.

Suggestions?

 

[movinweight]

I have the same exact problem with my sump setup....whenver i do a PWC I try to clean as much out as I can...but my sump is also wide open and only two chamber. The snails sound like a good idea because most of this is detritus build-up....I have the same filter sock on mine, but it only makes it a finer powder. Good luck to you!

 

[seaham358]

IMO snails will not clean up that mess, we all get that crud in the sump. You just need to siphon it out once in a while. Come up with another way to add water to the sump w/out sturing up the crud.