Brown buildup in fuge

I have the Aqueon Proflex sump (love it btw) and its been up for a few weeks now. I am getting a brown build up on the far keft side under the filter socks. What is this?? Its not slimely... more like small balls...

 

well, the pic's not the best but I'll take a stab....

it looks like normal sump detritus - It's a mixture precipitated solids (fish poop), various micro particulates that get past the sock (fish poop), bacteria (eats fish poop), algae (eats fish poop).....you get the picture.

My feeling has always been that it's mostly organic in nature, but it could also contain mineral precipitation and decomposed rock and sand.

IME it doesn't hurt anything, and I generally muck mine out every 6 months or so. Some snails seem to thrive on it, other die in that section of my sump. I avoid stirring it up, as it makes the water cloudy for hours, but on occasion when I do stir it up it hasn't hurt anything, and things in the tank seem to eat it -worms and snails that make a mucus net seem to go bonkers for it.

basically, I'd say leave it alone, but you can siphon it out if you want.

-Doug

 

Siphon it out. Use a large hose to get a strong fast siphon. Dont stir it up much. I siphon the same stuff out of my twin overflows and in my pausing area in my sump. IME when enough of this builds up undesirables will start to grow. IE cyno.

 

^^^ detritus