Brown Sump Waste

[gkersten]

I seem to get a lot of soft brown material collecting in the bottom of the waste which I have to vacuum up every week in order to keep the particulate matter from floating around the tank . Is this normal or am I missing something .. all water parameters are well within normal limits , fish and coral very healthy and thriving

[tlo]

just normal detrius (fish waste/rotten uneaten food etc)
A skimmer will help to remove some of this, if you don't already have one, other than that, regular vaccumming as you've been doing is the best way.

[Johnny Reefer]

Death. Taxes. Brown Sump Waste.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Johnny Reefer

Death. Taxes. Brown Sump Waste.

I'm going to go with "Things in life that are certain" good one!

[mark]

that's one of the reasons to have a sump (to collect the waste from the tank)

[Matt]

Brown sump waste... I have some of that. I hardly ever remove it, though. I bet it absolutely seethes under a microscope!

[gkersten]

Thanks I guess that answers my question > I do have a skimmer but thought that the skimmer would remove this waste and felt that perhaps it was not working to capacity if this sludge appears in the sump

[untamed]

I have two sumps. All this stuff gets drained out of the one sump during a water change. But the main sump has accumulated this stuff for over a year now and I've not pulled it out. It is probably 1cm deep in some spots.

[Delphinus]

I had about 3 years buildup of it I ended up cleaning with a shop vac back in March. It was... gruesome. I resolved to never let it get that bad again. I've promptly not done it again since. I probably should do something about that ... but man ... shop vaccing the sump means draining it completely and it's a PITA. But .. ugh, 3 years of it was gruesome. Did I mention it was gruesome? It was gruesome.

[Johnny Reefer]