Eliminating detritus

[ShapeGSX]

I have a 46 gallon reef tank, and the detritus from the 5 chromis, 1 pajama cardinal, and 1 clown fish seems to be endless. I have a sea cucumber, tons of snails and crabs, some large nassarius snails, and even a sand sifting star to clean stuff up. The cucumber seems to do a great job. He has been under one of my main rocks cleaning up for close to 4 weeks.

The detritus settles on my rocks, it settles on the sand bed, it settles on my galaxia coral. I have the main 950GPH return pump, and 4 MaxiJet pumps in the main tank to help keep the detritus from settling. They work in small spots, but not everywhere.

And whatever detritusdoesn't settle in the main tank settles in my sump/refugium.

I keep on siphoning out as much as I can when I do water changes. And I blow it out of the rocks with a turkey baster in the hopes that the skimmer would take care of it. The EV120 skimmer I have doesn't seem to get rid of the solid stuff.

But I just can't keep up.

What do people do to get rid of detritus in their tanks? Run a filter sock on the overflow in the sump? What size? I know that socks can become nitrate issues, but it can't be worse than just having it sit in the tank.

[rynon]

A filter sock would help a LOT. Just clean it, no nitrates and a cleaner tank. I would suggest something with more random, wide streamed flow. A Hydor korallia (whatever they're called) or a Tunze would help you out....wider stream, hits more of your rocks. If you get a Tunze get one with a controller.......the have a lot of power. It sounds like you have quite a bit of flow but apparently it's lacking in some spots?

[Eric55]

Get a Python and vacuum that crap, literally, out of your tank.

I am always amazed when I see that brown cloud of crap form and get sucked out of my tank.

[GMAX]

OK I will bite. whats a python?

[rynon]

A big "vacuum" siphon. http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt..._~vendor~.html

[rynon]

Well that didn't work. Just do a search on marine depot and you'll find it.

[ShapeGSX]

My problem is that to get all that detritus out with a vacuum, I'd end up removing more water than I would really want to.

I have vacuumed from the main tank into the sump before, though, with a filter sock on the end of the tube. But I think my filter sock wasn't fine enough since the detritus went right through. It caught the plant material, though. Maybe I'll try it with a finer sock.

[K' Family Reef]

are you having any water quality issues???

i have the same problem in my tank
my nitrates have never been a problem in fact i cant even get nitrates to measure in my tank... but phosphates have been a problem (most recently measured at .048)...

which imo its as a result of the built up detritus in the system...

i dont want to run a filter sock full time
but what i am doing now is whenever i do a water change i put the filter sock on and blow off all detritus from the rock etc... and run the filter sock for few hours to clean it all out... once tank is clear remove the sock... still dont want to vacuum out all the detritus from my sump... but i am going to start cleaning out one area every few mos... vacuum out 1 area of sump then later on vacuum out the 2d area of the sump... then another time the fuge etc etc = so that not to disrupt the overall too much at any one given time

[ricwilli]

What I do is filter out detritus with my Magnum 350 canister filter. It has a filter sock and carbon. What ever gets pass the filter sock, the carbon will definatley get. I don't even loose any water as the water goes right back in the tank. After use, I clean the sock and the carbon and reuse agian. I will reuse the carbon only about six times than replace it.

[badgerlaw]

You need to increase the flow in the tank. One day one of my Tunzes were down and I could not unstick the impeller. So I just shut it off. I noticed an increase in detritus and my skimmer was not working effectively. I fixed the tunze and I started getting all kinds of detritus in my skimmer collection cup.

The secret is to keep the detritus suspended in the water stream so it can be skimmed out. What kind of circulation do you have??

[ShapeGSX]

Water quality is pretty good. My phosphates read 0 with 2 test kits. And Nitrate is 2.5ppm. So everything is pretty good. It is just unsightly. The detritus tends to settle on rocks and just stick there.

I went out and bought some 100 micron filter material. They didn't have any filter socks. So I'll sew one out of the material. We will see what it does.

I do have a spare Eheim canister filter. I was going to try it out as a vacuum, but I realized that I'd have to fill it up with water first, and this is a BIG canister filter. I may still try it out at some point.

[ShapeGSX]

Originally posted by badgerlaw
You need to increase the flow in the tank. One day one of my Tunzes were down and I could not unstick the impeller. So I just shut it off. I noticed an increase in detritus and my skimmer was not working effectively. I fixed the tunze and I started getting all kinds of detritus in my skimmer collection cup.

The secret is to keep the detritus suspended in the water stream so it can be skimmed out. What kind of circulation do you have??

I have 4 Maxi Jets. 3 MJ600s, and 1 MJ900. They are on a Red Sea wave maker. And my return pump is a Mag 950. I have an eductor that I made, but I'm not sure it works well with the Mag 950.

My hang-on overflow is already pretty much at its max flow with the Mag 950.

I was actually thinking about going with a couple Tunzes or Koralias for extra flow in the tank.

[Eric55]

When I use the Python, I alternate between the front of the tank and the back of the tank on a monthly basis.

Once you get a consistent routine going, you don't need to do it that often. The first few times, however, are messy.

[revenant]

If you get Koralias, don't get anything less than a #3... I have both #3 and a #2 and the #2 is kind of weak.. my Tunze 6025 blows it away.. (litterally ). Anyways, good flow is the key to ridding your tank of D via skimming.. as stated above, you need to keep it suspended in water so the skimmer can get it out... also, once a month or so maybe use a powerhead or turkey baster to blast your LR off.. that helps keep any build-up from becoming a problem. I was having bad cyano issues until I optimized my flow and blew my LR off once in a while.. anyways.. best of luck to yoU!

[ShapeGSX]

The filter sock is in the tank. I think you are right about the flow and keeping it suspended in the water column. Thanks for the tips about the Koralias. Now, if only I could find a store with them in stock!

[DrBegalke]

i used sand sifter gobies in my 180... works great...

[ShapeGSX]

I have a signal goby that filters the sand very well. Forgot to mention him. Easily my favorite fish, even if he does turn my sand bed into swiss cheese.

[ShapeGSX]

I ran my filter sock on the tank 3 times last night. I'd put the sock on the water drain in the sump. Then I'd use the turkey baster to blow up a fish poop snow storm. Within 45 minutes, the filter sock was blown up like a balloon, and the water was being forced out the top because the filter was full. Then I'd rinse it out and repeat.

This morning, the tank was much cleaner. A few more filter runs will have the tank clean for sure.

And I'm going to order a couple Koralia 4's to keep the scum off the rocks in the first place. In addition, I'm going to plumb in a new return manifold with 2 eductors on it to increase flow.

[fishyface]

every couple days i use a mj 1200 with a 2 foot piece of hose on it to blow detritus off rocks so that it can get caught in my filter sock. i've got lots of circulation in my 120 but it still settles on the rock and this helps alot.

[gabegmonkey]

you could also try a plain old fashioned siphon cleaner and run the "output" tube through a filter sock and drain it into the sump that way you aren't taking water out but you are cleaning the display tank...