Fish in sump

I have seen people putting fish in their sump area, such as clowns or mollies. what is the purpose, or benefit? Also, im thinking of changing my lighting on my sump and tank as well to LEDs. What would be suitable for for a 40g sump? Its set up realativly simple. 2 chamber separated by acrylic and a sponge at the bottom. My protien skimmer, rock, macro alage, and calerpa are in one side and my return pump and charcoal are in the other.

Thanks

 

Welcome to 3Reef!

If there are clowns in the sump, I would guess they were being jerks to other tank-mates. If there were mollies that were acclimated to saltwater in the sump, I would guess they had a predator tank and the babies were intended to go to the display tank for food.

I've stored all sorts of things in sumps (TEMPORARILY). However, I wouldn't want fish in there long term. I want my sump to produce a lot of copepods for my display tank and that won't happen with fish in there.

 

as stated above it is usually for territorial issues, but i have seen some tanks that house delicate creatures in the sumps that couldnt be housed with the rest of the tank such as seahorses, or an octopus.