Daily fish waste amount is astonishing

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

This is just sixteen hours of accumulation from four small, young fish. The tank was completely waste free sixteen hours ago. There was also just one small feeding in that time.
If you double this daily and don't siphon it out, there is no wonder why sand beds can go nuclear if not enough of a clean up crew.
Heck, I have ~25 snails in my barebottom 40 breeder and they can't keep up at all...

 

[29reef]

I'm not sure this is the proper forum for this type of discussion. However I also believe that your pile of waste isn't mostly from your fish.

Considering the bacteria that live in the sand bed are the ones doing most of the work when it comes to breaking down "waste" I don't see how a CUC has anything to do with that. Unless your trying to debate BB vs DSB in which case your in the wrong forum.

Snails eat algae, they contribute to the "wastes" in the tank just like your fish.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

No intention to debate anything, not sure where you inferred that from....sometimes people mean exactly what they say and nothing more. My thread title spells my entire intent. Just posting a picture regarding the amount of waste from a small bioload in such a short time.
Thanks for your contribution. Which forum would you have this posted in if not here?

 

[reefjunkie42]

but the waste is from feeding, not the fish..kind of a weird thread and not the right forum as explained above..happy holidays

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Interesting thread, everytime one of my rabbits, tangs or angels poops I am amazed my filter system can keep up, I feed a lot or nori in addition to the pellets and meaty seafoods. Eagles, what are you feeding and what type of fish are you keeping?

I love it, a poo thread in reef fishes.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

I feed once per day, sometimes twice.
I feed PE mysid, NLS pellets, RN Formula Two pellets, cyclopeeze and mysid from my 5.5g mysid feeder tank on Saturdays.
I have two young Ocellaris, one chromis and one royal gramma.

Which forum would this go in more properly, if not here? Two people said wrong forum, but they don't offer their opinion on which forum would be appropriate....

 

[LukFox]

For what you're trying to show I think this section is fine for this thread. A lot of that pile looks like rocks though? Maybe it's the photo.

 

[aleonn]

That is quite a bit of fish poop/detritus. I've noticed that my turbo snails contribute a lot too LOL. I'm just curious, do you have pretty good circulation in your tank? I've found that my Vortechs create an undertow that mixes up detritus on the substrate so that it dissolves and is removed more effectively by my skimmer. Of course, there are a few dead spots that I hope my CUC get to.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

I have an MP40 on reef crest that goes up to ~80% at peak....if I turn it up to 90% or higher it moves the poop into a tornado and up into the water column.
However, I do not have an effective enough overflow to grab it, so it ends up on the rocks and corals.
This is why I have it only up to ~80%, so it all accumulates in that one spot.

 

[ezhoops]

Snails poo far more than fish, that could be your problem, 25 for a 40 gal.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

They were added to combat a bloom I had after removing my sand bed.
I should move some out now.
I find it funny that my fish don't eat it, I have had tanks in the past where the fish ate the waste.

 

[aleonn]

When I first got them, I found it funny (as well as disgusting) that my tangs ate poop.

 

[nonstopfishies]

To me it looks like mostly uneaten pellets in addition to the small rocks in that pile.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

I run a sand bed and it seems to be the majority of clean up is done by the myriad of organisms in the sabd bed and live rock. After dark the tank is crawling with worms, snails, limpets, pods, and other organisms and I dont see much of a buildup of detritus in the tank

 

[Harriscli]

I run a sand bed and it seems to be the majority of clean up is done by the myriad of organisms in the sabd bed and live rock. After dark the tank is crawling with worms, snails, limpets, pods, and other organisms and I dont see much of a buildup of detritus in the tank

I didn't realize that the Pods helped out with that. I saw a slight increase after i introduced a Mandarin. I chalked it up to it be a messy fish, but it could be the pods that he's eating.

 

[nonstopfishies]

I run a sand bed and it seems to be the majority of clean up is done by the myriad of organisms in the sabd bed and live rock. After dark the tank is crawling with worms, snails, limpets, pods, and other organisms and I dont see much of a buildup of detritus in the tank

Definitely makes a difference. Having a full assortment of organisms will break the wastes down fully. With no sand bed, anything small that hermits won't eat doesn't continue to get broken down like it would with a sand bed.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

To me it looks like mostly uneaten pellets in addition to the small rocks in that pile.

I could see how you might think that, but the pellets I feed are ~1/3 the size of their waste and not gray.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Definitely makes a difference. Having a full assortment of organisms will break the wastes down fully. With no sand bed, anything small that hermits won't eat doesn't continue to get broken down like it would with a sand bed.

I don't have a single hermit in my tank as my years of experience with them has always led to them eating my snails.

 

[ezhoops]

I run a sand bed and it seems to be the majority of clean up is done by the myriad of organisms in the sabd bed and live rock. After dark the tank is crawling with worms, snails, limpets, pods, and other organisms and I dont see much of a buildup of detritus in the tank

Same here and I have little if no poo left over in the morning. Definitely a benefit of a sand bed, but I like bb also.

 

[dixiedog]

Yes it's amazing how much detritus collects in a day. Only people with barebottom tanks really see this. And yes, I think the fish forum is where you would talk about fish waste.

However, as was mentioned, a lot of that isn't from your fish or even snails (which do poop a LOT). A totally empty tank with nothing in it but liverock will generate a very surprising amount of detritus as well.