So i see tanks like the one featured by Anand Kaimal's and wonder..... how do they not have a detritus problem? i have a bare bottom tank, 5 hydros + return (vortex of current), vacuum almost daily, change sock every 1-2 days, skim, gfo, rox carbon, feed lightly and yet i have a nutrient problem, and with that comes an algae problem. So with all the large corals, rocks, sand, etc. how is it possible that Anand Kaimal's does not have a sink hole of poop rotting away causing issues. Whats the secret???
How it this possible??
- Thread starter Heabel
- Start date
Bogue Chitto
New member
How old is your tank?
slief
RC Sponsor
The secret is copious amounts of well planned controlled flow. In your case, I don't think you have enough flow in the right places. If you are having to vacuum daily, then the waste in your tank isn't getting suspended in the water column so it can be sent out the overflow. I have a heavily stocked (60+ fish) and heavily fed (probably overfed) 480g display that is mostly bare bottom with exception of a few areas of sand in the center of the tank. I never vacuum and don't have detritus issues at all let alone nitrate issue. That said, I have a ton of well thought out flow to insure that stuff doesn't settle. This is where controllable pumps and a controller can pay major dividends. I run a few Tunzes that are controlled by my Apex. I have wave/surge profiles as well as flush profiles. The surge profiles are setup to create chaos but the flush profiles are setup to blast anything that has settled up into the water column. I also have a closed loop pump that dumps out under my rock and blasts out anything that could have settled under there. When my Flush cycles kick in several times a day, the closed loop RD3 pump also kicks up to a higher flow rate in conjunction with my Tunze's. The end result is a near spotless tank that has practically detritus free. From there, my felt filter socks and my skimmer do the rest of the work.
To put it in persective, my 480g display has over 20,000GPH of max controllable flow with just the power heads and closed loop. Add another 3000 GPH for my return pump at it's present setting (max is 5600GPH) and you end up with over 23,000 GPH of flow at any given time. That works out to about 48GPH per gallon of display water. In actuality, with several hundred pounds of live rock in the display, the GPH per gallon is much higher. I will also note that I only change out 150 gallons a month (5 gallons daily via my AWC) on a system with about 650g total volume. I have no detectable nitrates and no nuissance algae issues either and I spend less than 1 hour a month doing maintenance which includes changing socks weekly and cleaning the viewing panes. It's probably more like 30 minutes a month on maintenance not including feeding.
To put it in persective, my 480g display has over 20,000GPH of max controllable flow with just the power heads and closed loop. Add another 3000 GPH for my return pump at it's present setting (max is 5600GPH) and you end up with over 23,000 GPH of flow at any given time. That works out to about 48GPH per gallon of display water. In actuality, with several hundred pounds of live rock in the display, the GPH per gallon is much higher. I will also note that I only change out 150 gallons a month (5 gallons daily via my AWC) on a system with about 650g total volume. I have no detectable nitrates and no nuissance algae issues either and I spend less than 1 hour a month doing maintenance which includes changing socks weekly and cleaning the viewing panes. It's probably more like 30 minutes a month on maintenance not including feeding.
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slief
RC Sponsor
While there is some truth to that and that, maturity will impact the nitrate side but not the detritus and waste collection side. If you don't have enough flow to suspend the waste and export it frm the display via the overflow, detritus will settle in the tank and accumulate regardless of how mature the system is.
Took your advice and ordered some jebaos for some random flow. Detrius buildup is at a minimum on the aquarium BB floor now. Only had to vacuum a small pile of rock dust in the last week or so. My husbandry has always been darn good. Question still remains on super awesome tanks. With so much coral and other things in the way it would be impossible for even 40 wave makers to get all the detritus out of every nook and cranny. There is always some sort of buildup when you introduce rocks. For example. I can point a power head into a hole in the Rock and see gray matter flow out of 3 different locations as there is tunneling in the live Rock. That buildup is common in my rocks. Regardless of the amount of flow I have in the tank. At some point there will be to much stuff in the tank to manage that. So then what? Clean up crew can't get in this holes. Thanks for your replies
Psychomantix
New member
Anyone else spot clean their tanks? I have a shallow (about 11" tall) 42g reef tank and I feed 1/4 cube of Mysis a day, and my fish still poop like crazy. So what I have been doing is manually sucking up the poop with a plastic syringe once or twice a day. It takes less than 5 mins a day and I probably remove way more waste and nutrients from the tank than my oversized skimmer does. And tank looks great as well.
chilli_reef
New member
Have you checked your source water ?
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