Help with detritus

[mr9iron]

I was recently tasked with taking care of a large reef tank at a local business because the person who did the maintenance recently quit. The tank is a 265 gallon softy reef with several fishes and one of the biggest Colt corals I have ever seen. The problem is that over the last several months the previous caretaker let things go and was even doing topoff with tap water. So I obviously have some nutirent problems and some HA and cyano growing. I've done some big water changes with RODI, pulled the pumps apart and cleaned them, cleaned the skimmer and all of the other routine things that need to be done. My problem is that there is so much detritus in the tank on the sand and in and on the rocks. What would be the best way to get as much detritus out of the tank at water change time? I've took a powerhead and stirred things up before the water change but I'm just not getting much detritus out that way. Some of the problems I have encounterd is that the tank is tall and set up on a stand that is very tall. I have to climb up on a desk to get to the top of it to preform my chores and I cannot reach the bottom of the tank or the very front of the tank for that matter. Any Ideas?

 

[JimmyK]

What about siphoning water thru a filter sock during the next water change? Let the water sit in bucket and settle out. Then return water to tank. You can remove alot of detritus and solid waste this way. Obviously you still need to add some newly mixed salt water but this will allow to remove much more solid waste from the tank.This does not replace a water change but is in addition to a water change....Hope that makes sense....

 

[mr9iron]

What about siphoning water thru a filter sock during the next water change? Let the water sit in bucket and settle out. Then return water to tank. You can remove alot of detritus and solid waste this way. Obviously you still need to add some newly mixed salt water but this will allow to remove much more solid waste from the tank.This does not replace a water change but is in addition to a water change....Hope that makes sense....

Thanks you, that makes perfect sense and I will have to give that a try. I considered buying on of these to help. http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15484

 

[tmgrash]

Or use a filter like a magnum 300, canister filter, with a 1 micron filter. Just use the intake to siphon all the detrus and it will return cleaned.