carbon dosing and detritus

[reefer31]

I was wondering for those that are carbon dosing. Do you notice a decrease in detritus buildup in sump/dead areas of the tank? I would assume that with the carbon dosing that the nutrients would not be in the water to form detritus and therefore little detritus being formed? I guess my question is will the dosing of carbon eat up not only the nutrients in the water but will it eat up the detritus from before carbon dosing?

 

[reefer31]

Also is there any deleterious results that come from doing carbon dosing and then stopping after a period of time? I know that some bacteria would just die off because of the lack of food for them but would anything bad happen?

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Stopping dosing carbon cold could potentially lead to one large nutrient spike. It is best to ween the tank off of carbon rather than just stopping.

 

[reefer31]

nobody knows about the detritus question?

 

[Santoki]

It's a hard question to answer, since most of us try our best not to let any detritus accumulate. There are not any dead spots that I know of either in my display or in my sump. I have several maxi-mods in my sump. The few places where detritus traps are along the current facing sides of my tiles on the tank bottom, and I haven't noticed any quantifiable difference since starting vodka dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't see carbon dosing reducing detritus as detritus is not made from precipitated inorganic nutrients. It might even increase it as accumulated bacteria products (dead bodies and body parts, for example) may end up as detritus.

 

[Santoki]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13673314#post13673314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
(dead bodies and body parts, for example) may end up as detritus.

Randy,
sounds like you're talking about a horror movie or something...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:lol:

It does, doesn't it.

 

[reefer31]

great for halloween time lol. Anyways, that is interesting that the bacteria would not eat up the detritus. Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Agreed with Randy above--detritus build-up could certainly increase. However, it really depends on what happens to the microbial cells produced during the carbon dosing. They may build up as detritus, or they may end up in a skimmer, as biofilms, etc. If the detritus in the tank originates primarily from dead algae and such (a major source in nature) the increase in microbial metabolism may increase the rate of decomposition, reducing the amount of detritus.

In other words: it depends You could see an increase, a decrease, or no obvious change in the amount of detritus in the tank.

 

[dendro982]

Did anybody try ProtoBac or Biozyme (red can) for removing organic accumulations from the rock?

Anything, cheaper than Prodibio or ZeoBac (not sure about name)?

 

[fishgutz]

I have been dosing vodka for almost three weeks now. I have not noticed any difference in the buildup of detritus. What I have noticed is that my skimmer has produced very little since I started dosing which is contrary to what is supposed to happen. Very strange.

 

[reefer31]

thats strange fishgutz.

I have been dosing sugar for about 5 days and I started pretty slow and so far nothing has happened as of yet. Yesterday I went up to 1/2 tsp dosing into my 120 gallon so patience is a virtue . I will have to notice what happens to the minor amounts of detritus in my sump since I personally cannot see/find any areas in my tank that has a build up of detritus. Im not saying I have the cleanest tank but the rock probably hides some of it. This hobby is truly a fascinating one!

 

[DennisRB]

I noticed an increase in detritus when dosing sugar. This makes sense as there would be a large increase in dead bacteria due to the massive bacterial blooms.