detritus issues

[FOREIGNER]

evening reefers! I need some help. I am growing increasingly frustrated here, i have a bare bottom tank with live rock and 4 powerheads, i am constantly vacuuming the bottom of the tank and there always seems to be detritus accumulated on the bottom, i do not have but 2 astrea snails and a coral banded shrimp for a cleaning crew...any advise? it is a 55 gal only fish are a purple tang, clown fish and cardinal fish
thanks
:mad2:

[dc_909]

More power heads or you need to re-position the ones you currently have.

[sir_dudeguy]

For one, you've got very little as far as cleanup crew...that should be the first step (after taking the purple tang out probably :) ). I suggest getting a bunch of astreas and ceriths (but not all at once...just on an as-needed basis).

Next, what powerheads do you have? You might just not have enough flow. You could go really strong with the flow since you're going bare bottom. You dont gotta worry about sand blowing around. Get that extra flow to keep crap from settling on the bottom :) I've seen where people put a sort of spray bar on the sides/back on the bottom and have it blowing across the tank bottom to help with this.

[FOREIGNER]

I have 2 pengun 1140 (300 g/h) on the back top and 2 Hydor Koralias #3 on the middle water column towards the front... also have an aquaclear 500 powerfilter since i have no sump. In regards to the purple tang, i have been told to get him out of there before, however he is grazing on algae constantly and i would hate to get rid of him...is there any other tang i can get that is smaller or cleaner?

[sir_dudeguy]

the tang thing is obviously VERY debatable. I personally stand with a 55 is not big enough for any tang, not even a yellow (regardless of what places like liveaquaria.com recommend...they're trying to sell stuff, so of course they'll lower it a bit).

Have you tried a Sea Hare? I think it was zma who just started a thread this week where they added one to their tank (i think it was yesterday actually) and said that it was already goin to town on the stuff

[PatMayo]

But back to the flow question, I don't really know the benefit of going bare bottom with a tank that does not have SPS corals.

But since you are you will need to raise the flow up considerably to get rid of the crap on the bottom. Since you don't have a sump with a top notch skimmer its even more important to have good flow and the proper clean up crew. Even then you may not be able to get rid of all dietrus and may have to continue cleaning. You might also try reducing your feeding.

Regards,

Pat

[FOREIGNER]

Thank you Pat, actually I am considering introducing a couple SPS soon so i am slowly getting my tank up to par. I have gotten rid of mushrooms and softies and only have LPS...I just received my Tunze 9010 today to replace the PRIZM that i had and bare bottom to reduce nitrates. could you please assist me in the proper placement of the powerheads? i have arranged my live rock so it does not lean aganst the back glass completely, as a result there is some space between glass and rock..i have 2 koralias and 2 regular penguin powerheads
thanks you again

[PatMayo]

It's really hard to say how to set the powerheads up. The rock in my tank leans against the back of my tank so it's hard for me to tell you.

The best way is thru experimentation. The position that yields the least amount of stuff on the bottom of the tank is best. You may have to move them around to find the sweet spot. My powerheads are on opposite ends of the tank and point toward one another. They are about 6 inches from the top of the tank and about 4 inches back from the front of the tank.

Again, experiment and find what works best.

Good luck,

Regards,

Pat

[alexb518]

That is exactly why i dropped the barebottom a long time ago and went with a dsb. even with great water flow, you're still gonna get crap hidden under the rocks and what not that will blow out and stick out like a sore thumb on that bare bottom. you just have to clean it out once or twice a week