Are sumps necessary? Micro-tank

[Benga]

I'm super new so please excuse the dumb question, but I ran a 75g for a while with a few fishes and corals for a few months, healthy amount of coralline too. But I never had a sump. Granted it was only for maybe 4 months before I had to move and donated everything to my local shop.

Now I'm starting small scale with 20g so I can more easily manage and move it.

So at 20 Gallons is a sump necessary? What is it that a sump does that makes it so widespread in use?

In terms of hardware I plan to use a skimmer, powerhead, heater, HOB Filter, and my old light from the 75g.

Also anyone with any experience with Hawaiian Black sand from Carib Sea?

 

[Saltybubbles288]

Short answer, no they are not nessesary, They provide a place to store unsightly equipment and add to the total system volume, and can house a fuge if you wanted many are set up to house mechanical or addition biological filtration.

 

[Breadman03]

A sump does two main things. One is giving us a place to hide most of the equipment and the other is increasing system volume. They aren't necessary at all, but do become handy as tank size increases. You should look into AIO (all in one) and biocube tanks. They have a hidden part in the back for the filtration and auto top off.

 

[Saltybubbles288]

As for the sand I used the INDO pacific from Carib sea and I believe it's basicly mix of the Hawain and another sand type, it's volcanic and somewhat large imo for a substrate

 

[914joe]

^^^^x2.... I think you can run a 20g without a sump, I'd leave out the hob filter and maybe even the skimmer and rely on water changes. I like those hob fuges for a small tank to use to hide equipment and media.

 

[914joe]

^^^^x2.... I think you can run a 20g without a sump, I'd leave out the hob filter and maybe even the skimmer and rely on water changes. I like those hob fuges for a small tank to use to hide equipment and media.

 

[reefwiser]

It is not needed but the added water volume is really helpful.

 

[pecan2phat]

Also provides an avenue to skim the surface layer of the water through the exchange process. When you utilize a sump, water gets there either through a built in over flow or via a HOB device. This eliminates that nasty protein layer of surface scum that you sometimes see especially if feeding fatty food like mysis. All-in-ones with the false wall will do this also if the water level is maintained correctly. Sometimes surface agitation with power heads won't do it alone!