Detritus city!

[rcmike]

Hello Everyone, I have noticed lately I am getting a lot of detritus, mainly on and in the sand. I really noticed it today when I tried to catch a diamond goby out of my 30 gal. to put in the main reef (all plumbed together). Within minutes I had it so cloudy I couldn't see more than an inch into the tank. What should I do to get rid of this? I have read everything from vaccuming it up to taking all the sand out. I really like the look of sand and don't want to take it out if I can keep from it. Some people say not to vaccum and some say to vaccum. It is only an inch or so deep. I have also heard of some people siphoning some sand out occasionally and replacing it with new sand. What would you do?

Michael

[rcmike]

Oh, another idea. Could you siphon out some sand and clean it and then put it back in? Not the whole sand bed, just a little at a time. I know you would be killing off some bacteria but would it be enough detrimental.

[foggy54]

I have vacumed mine in different spots when i remove water for waterchanges. Or I stir it up a little at a time and let it go thru the skimmer. corals don't mind but clams get pi88ed.

[rcmike]

I have done some of the stirring up thing to but it doesn't seem to get skimmed out very much. I thought about getting one of those filter bags to put over my overflow to catch the gunk as it goes into the sump. Would be one more thing to clean but shouldn't be too difficult.

[TN_sledge]

I get some that settles out in the sump and I pump it out on water changes. Diamond goby does a good job keeping my sand clean at least on the surface. I have never vacuumed my sand. Tank is 18 months old.

[rcmike]

I have recently gotten a diamond goby and a golden head sleeper goby for that same reason. I think he is actually doing too good of a job, at least at the moment. The tank has been cloudy since I got them. Some settles in the sump but I have pretty strong water flow down there and it gets sucked into the return pump.

[fishdoc11]

I would siphon the heck out of it. If it's only an inch deep it shouldn't be a problem. Pinching the tube to slow down the flow will help in keeping sand in the tank and using less makeup water.
Chris

[forsaken541]

I have heard people say that they attatch a plastic fork to their siphon tube. This allows you to stir while you siphon. You can also put a filter sock on the other end and siphon into a bucket. this way you can clear the extra gunk but not loose all the water. Hope this helps,
Erik

[reewik]

Do you have any nassiarius(sp) snails in the tank. They eat detritus and live in the sand.

[rcmike]

I think I am going to try to vaccum it first, nothing to lose. I was thinking about nass. snails this morning. I may get a bunch of those also.

[imsqueak]

I rotate 4 micron bags on my overflows to try to keep up with the detritus and sand spitting rocks in my 300 BB. I think (know) it helps get stuff because a bag clogs up every day or two depending on how much I blow off the rocks. When I use up three of them, I throw them into the wash and wash once with bleach and once again with nothing and let dry completely.

[rcmike]

That's what I think I am going to do. What micron bags did you get?

[fishdoc11]

I got a couple from Marine depot for my new tank(also curious to see what kind your using imsqueak and if you like them). I'm thinking about adding one to my 90 as I'm having a hard time keeping up with the detritus building up in the sump. I clean it every two weeks but I still get trace amounts of nitrates and an alk drop in between.
Chris

[TN_sledge]

The only negative thing I have found about filter socks are they also catch all the little life forms we try to incourege in our tanks.

[imsqueak]

I have some hand me downs from a guy that uses them in his work to filter fluids. I don't know the micron size but nothing bigger than half a speck could get thru.

Doc, I change every day or two. When it starts to overflow over the edge, out it goes to laundry and in goes a new one. Since I'm nuts about getting my BB clean I blow the rock a couple times a week which clogs them up shortly thereafter. I would not recommend letting them sit a week or more as they will start breaking down and starting the cycle.

Sledge, that can be a good thing too. I've pulled fish and anemones out of my bags that might have met their demise in the sump. I have also purposefully unscrewed my overflows because a fish was in there and it was as simple as fetching them out of the bag. I do see some pods in the bags but it's a give and take. I also don't run a fuge, only a 70g sump so pods are nice but I don't have a good habitat for them after the overflows anyhow.

[rcmike]

Well, I tried vaccuming it some this morning. Let me tell you, it is a mess. Parts of it are compacted and almost solid. Also, I ran into some sulfur somewhere in it. It stank up the whole room. I am almost to the point of sucking it all out and maybe (or maybe not) putting a thin layer just to cover the bottom.

[cee]

Better start thinking about removing your sand bed. Or, get some cukes and nassarius snails to help turn it over. I'm going 1/2" crushed coral, which I can vacuum through a canister filter, to avoid the deitrius problem while still maintaining the asthetics of a substrate.

Dave

[rcmike]

I'm getting close to thinking that myself. I have some cukes but they don't seem to be doing much exept on the surface. One funny thing I have noticed is that when I had a 55 set up with silica sand from Lowes I never had this problem but with the larger grained aragonite it seems to collect more junk in it. I guess the silica is fine enough the junk didn't go down through the grains like aragonite.

[rcmike]

I ordered some nassarius snails from www.floridapets.com. They should be here Friday. I also messed with my wave devices and redirected the flow to where it blows from the front corners to the back opposite corner. I could see stuff lifting from the back of the tank behind the rocks so that is good.

[Noon]

Let me know how your order turns out, I am gonna be ordering my snails pretty soon.

[rcmike]

So far they have been great (don't receive them till tomorrow though) an very helpful. I have gotten a few e-mails from Shelley there keeping me updated on the order. They didn't have enough of the obsoleta snails so they are going to send them next week with free shipping. I ordered Nassarius Vibex, Nassarius Obsoleta, and some pipefish. I did a lot of research on the obsoleta before ordering and some people said they were temperate and wouldn't live. Most of the people that said bad things about them being temperate and all never have kept them. The people that have had them say they are great at stirring the sand and long lived. It is kind of like when Dr. Ron said that the Tequile Turbo Snails like I have gotten at the critter were cold water snails and wouldn't last very long but mine have out lived the regular turbos I have had. I have had them for a couple of years and only a couple have died.

[boofer]

Mike, What kind of pipefish? Did you get the Dragon pipefish that eats red bugs by chance?

[rcmike]

No, they are assorted. They are either gulf, dwarf, or dusky. I am hoping to train them to eat frozen. I was able to do it with some a few years ago. They might eat red bugs. I'm not putting them in my tank to find out though! They wouldn't have a chance in my reef with all the water flow though. If someone has a frag that has red bugs they are willing to (possibly) sacrifice I could put it in a 10 gal. with one when I get them eating to try. The pipefish were only $3.99 so I went ahead and got 5.

[boofer]

cool..I was thinking about the dragon pipefish, but my tang would probably kill it...flow would be an issue in my tank also. I saw the real cool looking blue dragon pipefish on Dr macs site, and that they eat red-bugs..just cant get one. I was also thinking about going seahorse/pipefish in that nano I got, but it seems too small to me. I could only keep a couple dwarf seahorses so Im probably just going to do a softy/zoa tank instead. Decisions, decisions...
BTW, Whats the diffrence between the 2 nassarius snails your getting?

[rcmike]

Is it the 12 gal.? You could probably keep a pair of something like Kudas or something. Actually for dwarfs smaller is better to a point. I had some in a 5 gal. and you couldn't find them sometimes. For that size you could keep several. Since they have quit importing wild caught the captive bred ones have gone way up in price. The captive bred ones are a lot less headache to take care of since they will eat frozen and don't have the parasite problems of wild caught ones. Wild dwarfs seem to do pretty good though.

On the snails, I think the obsoletas are a little bigger than the vibex. I have read they will eat a little algae and more detritus but there is some debate about that.

[rcmike]

I think I am going to take off the scwd of the return. It doesn't do much compared to my other wavemaking devices. I think it will do more good to have the extra waterflow withough the scwd restricting it. I have been skimming wetter also and I think that helps. I got about a gallon and a half last week and there was a lot more solid clumps in it. I was surprised it was still almost as dark as when I skimmed dry. Dry skimming I only got about a cup in a week.

[boofer]

I hear ya on the SQWD. I know Im losing at least 40% of my Mag 7. Its gotta be wasting alot of energy which=heat. Im really wanting to get a Oceans Motions Squirt and a little bigger pump...but the upgrade is speaking there:)
It is the 12gal BTW. I did alot of research on Seahorses and Im not sure if thats actually what Im wanting to do...my girls would love it, but the Softy/LPS tank is weighing heavier at the moment.