Detritus Removal

[Cali Kid]

What is the best proceedure for removing detritus from the tank?

I'm currently using the turkey bayster daily to blow the detritus off the rocks and then I'm assuming that some of it is consumed by the corals, some of it is captured by the prefilter in the overflow, some of it is processed by the skimmer, and some of it just settles back in the tank or the sump. And of course I try to vacuum out as much as I can when doing water changes.

Is there anything that I'm missing?

Thanks,

Sean

[Alice]

Not much I don't think.

You might want to pull the more accessible rocks and flush them with clean SW every so often, and keep a powerhead or spray bar down low in the tank to keep as much of the detritus as possible suspended in the water column for the prefilter and skimmer to remove.

Alice

[mojoreef]

sounds good to me

[Cali Kid]

Thanks Alica and Mike.

I also added an additional overflow. So now I've got the valve on my ampmaster 3000 wide open and tons of flow.

I like the idea of having a powerhead down low to stir up those settling spots.

I was reading some of the content in that Shimeks S-15 report. Particularly the discussion on detritus removal. I'm thinkin..... great Now I've got to remove my DSB. Sheesh! Especially after hearing what Steve Weast had to say. His set-up sounds similar to yours mike. With the flow under the live rock. My rock is just sitting on my DSB. According to Jerel, I'm going to have to deal with this sooner or later. Whats your take on this? That is something I am not looking forward to (removing the DSB )

[CAT]

There are a few critters that are supposed to eat detritus... I believe Dr. Ron has suggested Cerith snails. Might be worth a shot first, before tearing apart the sandbed.

[Green Chromis]

Hi Cali Kid, I just finished cleaning the sandbed in my tank (plenum system). Used a siphon to lightly vacum the sandbed and after that a turkey baster to blow the detritus out of the sand into the water column so it can then be picked up by filter floss in the sump. I did 1/2 the sand bed this time and will do the other 1/2 the next time I do a water change. You will se a big improvement in your tank after doing this, just don't wait 3 yrs. like I did.

[Hommeworks]

I determined an area where detrius collected the most. It was with piled up rocks. Water circulation was also degraded in this area. I pulled the rock, traded it pound for pound at my LFS for Tonga branching rock. I built a teepee like reefscape from this with much the improved water circulation and no ledges for detrius to collect on. It drops to the sandbed where natures little creatures do their thing. The fishies even like it more because it created cool swim throughs that they like to twirl around.

[mojoreef]

Sean I hear ya on the DSB thingy. It still can be cleaned but is definately more trouble. The DSB is a viable denitrifier it just comes with more hassles on removing the detritis and others. And the removal of such is an absolute. The DSB theory is the a result of the eternal search for the miracle natural fix. And yes it does work but as with everything it comes with a price. Its just too bad that the expert pushers of this system failed to tell us or even know of this problem on thier way to selling books and aquiring speaking arrangements.


mike