detritus on the bottom of sand bed

[bradleyb]

I have a 50 gallon tank that I use as a refugium and it has 5-6 inches of sand functioning as a dsb. My tank is 120 gallons and I have a DLS roll that functions as mechanical filtration prior to reaching the dsb/sump - the water flows comes down and flows into the sump via a pvc pipe with holes drilled on the top at the surface level of the water. How can I get rid of the detritus that seems to collect on the sand in the sump - it has accumulated to about 1/8" inch in some places? Should I just stir up the sand with the skimmer working and the return pump shut off for a hour or so? Should I use snails, sand star, hermits, slug? Everything seems pretty happy now so should I do nothing? It has gotten a little bit better with the addition of a few snails and the small snails that seem to be procreating in the sump.

Attached is a drawing of my sump

[romunov]

You can just syphon the detritus out. Worms are a good control of left over foods, sand sifting stars eat inbed fauna, hermits prefer meat over detritus, slugs are usually specific sponge/tunicate/other sessile animals predators.

[Saltz Creep]

Fighting conchs are great on sandbed detritus.

BTW, how do you open an .xls file?

[bradleyb]

thanks guys! open an xls. file with Excel. I have been thinking about buying a "cleaner crew" package so I will have to include the conchs and some snails (crabless package from etropicals :-)