How do you remove detritus from the tank?

[kingfish]

Need some ideas on detritus removal. I looking for simple and affective ideas. I'm not looking for marine inhabitance as a solution. Why? Matter is neither created nor destroyed. Therefore a marine critter eating detrius creates detritus. A simple and affective mechanical solution is desired without polluting the water column is desired. Thank you all in advance!

[roni]

a couple things to consider. assuming you have a sump, putting a filter sock and changing frequently is one way. in order to maximize the amount of particulate material that will go into the sump, you want to create as much random flow within your tank and minimize dead spots, either through rotating flow and different flow devices (vortech, tunze). it's also not a bad idea to turkey baste the rock periodically. your lps will thank you and you can get more detritus into your water column and then into the filter sock.

 

siphoning your sump periodically also helps.

[dakotasreef]

+1 to that. I change my filter socks every few days.

[Jon Lazar]

I'm not looking for marine inhabitance as a solution. Why? Matter is neither created nor destroyed. Therefore a marine critter eating detrius creates detritus.

 

True, but keep in mind that every pass through a critter's digestive system removes some of the nutrients from the detritus. Fish remove around 10% of the nutrients from the food they eat and use it to build and repair tissues or produce energy. I expect it's a similar percentage for all the other mouths in your tank's food chain.

 

Water flow, turkey basters, and filter socks are often bigger and faster. But biological controls are part of the process too.

[zygote2k]

How about not worrying about a patch of detritus?

There will be some critter that will live in that patch and enjoy it much more than you do. No matter how much flow you have in the tank, there will always be a place where detritus can accumulate.

[Coral Hind]

I just siphon it out during water changes.

[FearTheTerps]

I just siphon it out during water changes.

 

+1

 

Also if you have alot of cleaning to do and you are worried about removing too much water you can run the siphon into a filter sock in a bucket. You can then put the cleaned water back into the tank if you removed too much during the water change.

[treesprite]

I blow the detritus off the rocks and blow into the holes in the roks to make the detritus come out of all the holes and crevices. The corals are happy with it. I turn my skimmer up when I do this.

 

I made a mistake by not doing the above for a couple months straight; I ended up with a fierce explosion of fiter feeder growth (a few types of feather dusters, few types of sponge... so growing very fast), then had to scrub all of my rock with toothbrush because I hate sponge in my DT, and I don't like have bazillion feather dusters which grow all over my corals leaving thin white lines on them (I pick off what I can and put them in the fuge, then scrub the rest away).

[Jon Lazar]

+1

 

Also if you have alot of cleaning to do and you are worried about removing too much water you can run the siphon into a filter sock in a bucket. You can then put the cleaned water back into the tank if you removed too much during the water change.

 

 

Better yet, put the filter sock in the sump and run the siphon into it. Then you can siphon all day long and the return pump will keep moving the water you siphon back into the display.

[zygote2k]

FWIW, I have found that if you leave things alone, you'll get far better results in the long run. On my skimmerless LPS tank, I don't worry about detritus or cyano patches or even a random patch of nuisance algae. I have tons of pods, flatworms, feather dusters, sponges, tube worms, etc. Ask Paul B what he thinks about detritus.

[Jan]

+1 Works great!

I just siphon it out during water changes.

[Reefoholic]

I don't clean out detritus either. I think a squeaky clean tank is also stripped from food for inverts, food for corals, pods, and what not.

 

I don't think in the oceans someone vacuum cleans the reef every couple days...

 

Especially for the detritus in a SUMP, I would leave it alone. I think it is much better to have some detritus accumulated naturally.

 

Regular water changes and stable water parameters are the key to a healthy eco-system. Other than a little gardening here and there for nuisance algae, I would leave it alone.

[Coral Hind]

I don't think in the oceans someone vacuum cleans the reef every couple days...

 

I don't think we can really compare what happens in our tanks to the oceans.

 

Every captive system is different and a tank with a light bio-load might get away with not needing to address the detritus as you mentioned while others like mine will need the detritus removed weekly. I have large waste producers and the detritus can pile up very fast if not siphoned out.

[Reefoholic]

I don't think we can really compare what happens in our tanks to the oceans.

 

Every captive system is different and a tank with a light bio-load might get away with not needing to address the detritus as you mentioned while others like mine will need the detritus removed weekly. I have large waste producers and the detritus can pile up very fast if not siphoned out.

 

point taken. I also think stirring up the sand bed sometimes helps suspend the detritus and be removed thru the overflow.

[Jan]

This is a brilliant idea. Thanks for posting.

 

Better yet, put the filter sock in the sump and run the siphon into it. Then you can siphon all day long and the return pump will keep moving the water you siphon back into the display.