Dealing with Detritus

[Atf22]

To start, i'll let you guys know that I've read just about every thread Google has to offer on this topic, and i have already started doing my best to deal with the problem but i thought i'd give this a shot. Detritus. Possibly the most annoying thing we have to deal with because there's always that little about that won't go away, you spend an hour fixing your power heads to fix that one dead spot only to create 2 more. So, this is my problem. I have a 75 gallon reef tank, kinda. Tank crashed about a month and a half ago because a Goby i bought, to deal with the detritus, kicked up all my sand, stressed my fish, and then Ich took over. So i ran the tank for month and a half with no fish to kill all the ich spores. BUT, what i didn't realize, was that all that detritus i couldn't see, was slowly contaminating the water. After a couple days of researching what to do, i went out and bought 5 nassarius snails, all the LFS had in stock. Then, tried re-arranging the power heads. I have 1 Koralia 1500, and a WP-25, on opposite sides of the tank blasting at each other to get random water movement. The corals love it! but there's a couple dead spots. 2-4 actually, 1 under each power head and small scattered ones under some of the rocks. Then, after some adjusting, i cut it down to 2. So my question is, what is the best way to deal with the detritus that will start to come back as i start to re-stock? i was thinking maybe 20 or so Nassarius snails, and is there a way to siphon out the detritus without getting sand? i'm using arga-live fiji pink, it's not too fine but not really big. Any ideas?

IN SHORT: Had Detritus, some spots left, got some snails, how do i get rid of the rest?

 

[james30ct]

I think thats why crushed coral is a better option because you can siphon out the poop with out getting so much sand. You can still siphon your sand bed and just replace some over time as it diminishes.

 

[Teenreefer15]

i think thats why crushed coral is a better option because you can siphon out the poop with out getting so much sand. You can still siphon your sand bed and just replace some over time as it diminishes.

+1

 

[Atf22]

I think thats why crushed coral is a better option because you can siphon out the poop with out getting so much sand. You can still siphon your sand bed and just replace some over time as it diminishes.

What if i slowly started to siphon out all the detritus and then replaced with crushed coral in the spots where there's build up?

 

[Crispy001]

I think thats why crushed coral is a better option because you can siphon out the poop with out getting so much sand. You can still siphon your sand bed and just replace some over time as it diminishes.

Wouldn't it be better to suck some sand up, let it tumble in the siphon a little bit, and then kink the hose so it falls back? All the small detritus particles will still get carried away, while the heavy sand stays in the tank.

Adding sand causes diatom blooms and makes everything look terrible.

 

[Diamond Dave]

You can also put a clamp on the siphon hose to slow it. Small c-clamp works good.

 

[MMM33732]

You'll always have detritus unless you are bare bottom and have a TON of flow to keep it in suspension. Aside from that I would say siphon it out as necessary and either replace the sand with new or rinse the little bit of old sand that got siphoned off until the water runs clear and return it.

 

[reepher315]

Get a diamond goby. Keeps my sand bed nice and clean.

 

[Puffyluv]

Diamond gobies have a poor survival rate in captivity...for a 75g I would use a tigertail cucumber, or just siphon the detritus.

 

[plyle02]

Get a diamond goby. Keeps my sand bed nice and clean.

..

Agreed, mine flips the sand at least twice per day, sand is oh so clean, I also have 3 cucs in my 120 gallon.

 

[Atf22]

Buying a Gravel Vac today, owner of the LFS is going to show me how he vac's detritus but keeps sand, thanks all

 

[cloak]

Instead of using the Gravel Vac, you could just use a small power head to stir up your substrate every now & then. Your not going to get all of the detritus, but siphon out what you can and incorporate some type of mechanical filtration for awhile to polish the water. That Gravel Vac can only go so far, but you'll be amazed at how much detritus can accumulate under your rocks when you use the power head. Just as an example, this is what my tank looks like every 30-40 days. I've been causing these little storms for about 5 years now and so far so good. GL.

My sand bed is only about an inch deep btw.

 

[Atf22]

Instead of using the Gravel Vac, you could just use a small power head to stir up your substrate every now & then. Your not going to get all of the detritus, but siphon out what you can and incorporate some type of mechanical filtration for awhile to polish the water. That Gravel Vac can only go so far, but you'll be amazed at how much detritus can accumulate under your rocks when you use the power head. Just as an example, this is what my tank looks like every 30-40 days. I've been causing these little storms for about 5 years now and so far so good. GL.

My sand bed is only about an inch deep btw.

Dang...Thats alotttt of detritus hahaha. kinda did what you suggested, but on a lower scale. Took a turkey baster and blasted under all the rocks, on the rocks, and then did a 15g water change. It was so bad. That water looked brown/yellow, didn't realize how extreme it was! Nitrates weren't even bad, only around 10ppm! Luckily i caught this before stocking the tank! Thanks for all the help everyone

 

[Stepho725]

I'm glad I read this as I have nasty detritus issues as well. I occasionally stir my sand and blow off the rocks, but only do like a third to quarter of the sand at a time because my corals don't seem to like it at all!

 

[slowjazz]

Diamond gobies have a poor survival rate in captivity...for a 75g I would use a tigertail cucumber, or just siphon the detritus.

I think that could be said about 90 or so % of the fish we try to keep. Make a tank too perfect and things die, not perfect enough and things die. All luck if you ask me....

I have a Diamond for over 2 years now. Small when I got him and large now. My sand is very nice and clean as he shoots all over the tank each day. Only downside is the mountains he makes.

I thought about a cucumber a long time ago, but also read that unless you have a very large tank you run the high risk of it nuking your tank.

 

[slowjazz]

Instead of using the Gravel Vac, you could just use a small power head to stir up your substrate every now & then. Your not going to get all of the detritus, but siphon out what you can and incorporate some type of mechanical filtration for awhile to polish the water. That Gravel Vac can only go so far, but you'll be amazed at how much detritus can accumulate under your rocks when you use the power head. Just as an example, this is what my tank looks like every 30-40 days. I've been causing these little storms for about 5 years now and so far so good. GL.

My sand bed is only about an inch deep btw.

wow! I think you have a bigger problem then just cleaning. That is very messy water. what type of filter do you have? (sump, hob...ect) Do you run socks if you have a sump? Do you run carbon? do you have a right sized skimmer?

Either you are way over feeding, have a under stocked tank (over feeding) or have an over stocked tank. (too much fish poop for skimmer)

Either way your water should not look that bad.

 

[cloak]

Nope, no problems whatsoever.

It just a standard 20 gallon tank & I use an Eshopps PSK-skimmer. Other than hooking up a filter sock for a few hours during a water change, I don't use any sort of mechanical filtration. Sometimes I'll run a little carbon, but this doesn't necessarily help with particulate matter. (detritus) No GFO, no refugium. There's only 2 Ocellaris clowns in the tank, so overstocking or overfeeding is not an issue. Like I said before, these little storms have been created every 30 to 40 days for the past 5 years without any problems. It may look horrible, but getting all this muck up into the water column so it can be taken out is a good thing. I'd be willing to bet that if you were to get a power head right now and completely turn over your entire sand bed, (beneath the rocks & all) your water would be just as dirty as mine. I guaranty it...

 

[Puffyluv]

I think that could be said about 90 or so % of the fish we try to keep. Make a tank too perfect and things die, not perfect enough and things die. All luck if you ask me....

I have a Diamond for over 2 years now. Small when I got him and large now. My sand is very nice and clean as he shoots all over the tank each day. Only downside is the mountains he makes.

I would guess that to have him two years, you have a tank over 75g?

And I have to say...that's awful...if I felt like 90% of the fish we try to keep have a poor survival rate in captivity I would quit keeping fish altogether.

Glad you found a way to keep your detritus at bay!!! I subscribe to the sand stirring procedure myself, lol! Wish I had the patience to stir the farm that often!