Suspened Deitris

[LENNIE]

Hello All,

Today i did a water change and cleaned some rock. While the pump was off i noticed a bunch of suspened deitris in my water column. All my test are good. I have a 35G sump/fuge and a 135G tank. I have'nt been the best keeper but i did'nt expect to see this much. I have a 4" southdown dsb. Anyone?

tks Lennie

[s13silvia]

its normal, you'll be surprised how much detritus builds up in our rocks and sandbeds... if you run a filter sock or other means of mechanical filtration, blow your rocks off with a turkey baster when doing water changes...

[cuongvynguyen]

Most of my detrius is built up on the rocks also. I have a 4 year old DSB and when I perform water changes I turn off all pumps and blow all the detrius out of the rocks and siphon off the detrius off the sand along with stirring up the top 1/8-1/3 inch of sand on the sand bed to help vacumn off additional detrius / debris....

Also cleaning your skimmer is a good idea at this time.... I also clean my sump of detrius. Whan I add water I also drip some kalkwasser to help precipitate the debris in the water column and watch how much dark foam the skimmer produces....

I premix my salt and let it age over night before performing the water change. It takes me 1 1/2 to 2 hours to perform the water change routine above... but it does wonders in keeping the water column crystal clear, the sand bed clear of toxic areas.

Its a lot of work, but you have to be sure to remove just about all the nutients that you put into the system to keep it clean.

[LENNIE]

I'm glad to hear this. I am adding my first Rose BTA tuesday and maybe a clam. Also i am overrun by pods. They are on the sandbed,glass rock ect. The only thing i see eating them is my queen conch. I have 2 Percs,1 lawnmower blennie,1 scopus tang 1 bicolor dottyback 2 firefish although i have'nt seen 1 off them in 2 days. He never did come outta the rocks much.

tks L