Cleanup crew for detritus

[PupChow]

I am currently battling hair algae and I believe I am making decent progress... but I notice there are detritus on the surface of my sand (gray ash type material) and hair algae seems to grow from those. Are there any animal you would recommend that can help break that down further? I plan to increase the flow and skim more aggressively as well.

I have a 65g talk and currently I have around 12 snails, 10 or so small hermits as cleanup crew.

 

[PupChow]

^ anyone?

 

[landlord]

If the detritus is a waste product from fish or from snails I think that I remember hearing that cerith snail will feed on it to further break it down. Ideally you will want to try and prevent that type of build up, either through perhaps more aggressive water movement so as to suspend the filth long enough to get it to your filtration systems, or by implementing a regime of blowing detritus with a turkey baster to bring it up to the water column with the hopes of it eventually getting to your filters.

During a tank cycle I got a huge hair algae bloom (as to be expected). I simply stuck to what has worked in the past for me. Aggressive water movement, DAILY turkey basting and glass cleaning, wet skimming. I went out and got three monster sized turbo snails. They are garbage disposals in my opinion.

In any case, I feel that no matter what you try to do just be consistent in your approach. Daily maintenance in my tanks as listed above seems to work out well for me.

Good Luck!

FWIW --landlord

 

[frederickk]

I would personaly go with 1 or 2 mexican turbo snails if your looking for a good snail to eat heair algae. They will do the job in approx. 2 weeks.

 

[barngeatbayman]

detrius eaters Nassauris snails

 

[MikePowell]

Serpent star, nassauris snails, and cerith snails. IMO. thats what i have in my tank and i rarely find detritus build up around my rocks.

 

[nmywrx]

I use a turkey baster to stir things up a bit every time I do a water change. This helps to keep the detritus from accumulating in little pockets in the rock or sand.

 

[Wrench]

I have a yellow cuke, a watchman goby and a coupe queen conch's that make up my primary detrivores. I've never had any issues related to the buildup of detritus. I believe the cuke is responsible for most of the cleaning that goes on.

 

[Roger928]

Nassauris snails are my faves, especially for cleaning/stirring the sand. Depending on the sand depth, at least a dozen.