Is detritus good eats?
- Thread starter magdelan
- Start date
blanden.adam
Team RC
Well, I wouldn't recommend it as a sandwich spread, but....
If it's small enough, sure. They can extract nutrients from it if they can digest the particular piece they grab. Granted, it'd be the same nutrients they would take form the water column after it decayed, but hey, it cant hurt right?
If it's small enough, sure. They can extract nutrients from it if they can digest the particular piece they grab. Granted, it'd be the same nutrients they would take form the water column after it decayed, but hey, it cant hurt right?
Steve Canyon
New member
G told me once he referrs to it as pseudoplankton. good in measured doses... I believe it. I suck it all up everytime I do a water change, but when it is forced into suspension during the week from the fishtail turbulence stirring it up, the corals all seem to take advantage of it. And the snails all send out their snot strings...
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
re: is detritus good eats?
re: is detritus good eats?
it depends on the consumer.
There ARE animals that are detrivores (ie: they eat detritus).
Some animals do not eat detritus. I think many people make the wrong assumption that detritus is good for their aquarium corals and MORE is BETTER. Usually not the case IME/IMO!
They head in the wrong direction (scummy tank) then wonder why their aquarium corals look like crap.
Stirring up the detritus is (generally) a very good practice. It allows the (hopefully present!) filter system to remove it as well as putting detritus into suspension where those critters that might consume it (or bacteria on it) can access it.
Bottom line: the big challenge for reef aquarists is to limit the amount of detritus in their aquarium.
re: is detritus good eats?
it depends on the consumer.
There ARE animals that are detrivores (ie: they eat detritus).
Some animals do not eat detritus. I think many people make the wrong assumption that detritus is good for their aquarium corals and MORE is BETTER. Usually not the case IME/IMO!
They head in the wrong direction (scummy tank) then wonder why their aquarium corals look like crap.
Stirring up the detritus is (generally) a very good practice. It allows the (hopefully present!) filter system to remove it as well as putting detritus into suspension where those critters that might consume it (or bacteria on it) can access it.
Bottom line: the big challenge for reef aquarists is to limit the amount of detritus in their aquarium.
magdelan
Fish?
I've been keeping up on a 2 gallon water change weekly. It's a 5 gallan tank and I'd guess that the LR displaces about 1 gallon of water so, realistically, I'm doing a 50% water change weekly.
With that being said, this whole turkey baster/detritus storm began around a month ago. I was about to do a WC and thought that it would be a good idea to get as much detritus from in and under the LR suspended in the water column so that I could syphon out as much as possible. During this process I realized that several of the corals were responding favorably to this.
After that, I began doing this nightly. In addition, I realized that this was also a great opportunity for it to pass through my filter.
It's really amazin how much detritus comes out of this small amount of rock!
With that being said, this whole turkey baster/detritus storm began around a month ago. I was about to do a WC and thought that it would be a good idea to get as much detritus from in and under the LR suspended in the water column so that I could syphon out as much as possible. During this process I realized that several of the corals were responding favorably to this.
After that, I began doing this nightly. In addition, I realized that this was also a great opportunity for it to pass through my filter.
It's really amazin how much detritus comes out of this small amount of rock!
