Best Detritus Removers?

[FastUno]

What have you guys found to be really good detritus removers?

I have heard others say snails, sand sifting starfish, & urchins. I have not tried urchins yet. Anything better? Where can we get them?

How do you guys keep your sandbed free of this stuff?

 

[cali_reef]

I use sea cucumbers, fighting conchs, and queen conchs.

Some snails do stay in the sandbed, don't know the names off the top of my head. Star fish are known to eat some of the good stuff like pods, they also like to crawl all over the tank and knock your frags over. I did not know urchins will eat off the sand, IME they will eat algae off rocks and glass but they also knock over everything as they move thru the tank.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Pierce, are you talking about nassirus snails? I got those and they stay in the sand all day until night or when I feed the tank they rush out like mad snails.

 

[FastUno]

Do you actually see them eating poop? I have a barebottom tank & am trying to avoid having to vacuum out every week. It's clear in the front of the tank, but gets between rocks where stuff accumulates.

I will have an open buffet for any creature willing to do the job, so far nothing that I have seems to want to touch it.

 

[spykes]

people say tiger cucumber are amazing sand cleaners, they literally swhoop up the sand i've heard. i am interested in buying one and the new tonga fighting conches i've heard those are amazing as well. nassurus doesnt do much compared to the cumber and conches.

 

[cali_reef]

I have 5 tiger tails and they do eat the sand and poop them out in a small roll

 

[spykes]

cali any place i can buy them locally?

 

[stingnyc]

FastUno,

I saw a really nice BB tank and the person put a Tunze 6200 on the bottom of the tank to keep the detritus from settling. An expensive option, but it works for him.

 

[cali_reef]

Spykes,
Never seem them around here, fish town had some ugley brown ones few weeks ago. I moved mine from LA last year.


Fastuno, The best kind of bottom cleaner for your BB tank is a python They are clear with green tips and can get very large(long).

 

[FastUno]

In my 90g I have a Tunze 6060 pushing 1600 gph & a return pushing about 700 gph. I would think it should be enough flow rate & judging by things swaying around it appears so. The way my rock work is setup 1 additional tunze will not help, I would need like 5-6 smaller pumps. Kinda impractical. What redo my rock work?

The front of my tank looks clear & clean. It's the in betweens that I am worried about. I also have this one big cave that is a dead spot.

Pythons are too big, your right. I use 1/2 inch vinyl tubing & siphon from main tank into sump in a filter pad. I get out a lot, but requires me to do it every week, it is a p.i.d.a.

 

[jackson6745]

The best detritus removers are CRAZY flow and micron bags. Siphioning during water changes is great also.

Fastuno, i think you need more flow in your 90gal. I had double the amount of flow in my old 65gallon DSB reef and I still had detritus settle in some areas.

[ May 01, 2005, 01:35 AM: Message edited by: jackson6745 ]

 

[Melt]

i have the same problem but I will tackle it different .........i just pickup two micro bags so I will use them....and shut down my streams and blow the rocks..

 

[jackson6745]

Leon, why shut the streams?

 

[charliethetuna88]

i have cucumbers and they sand sift at night fish town always has them in for like 7 bucks the uglyer the cucumber the more it works remember that when picking one out

 

[FastUno]

By the looks of my corals blowing around, it seems that I might be almost at the too much mark. Adding another PH blowing the tank center might not be good. I am doing mostly softies & LPS's, not too many SPS's.

So far what works is siphoning things out & then water change, the next day it looks crazy crystal clear. Wish I did not have to put my hands in the tank every week though.

 

[FastUno]

Aren't cuce's timebombs?

 

[glipper69]

I use a variety of stuff and truthfully I think that the best because u have many different cleaners filling there own little niche in the tank. but out of all of them I would say the mexican turbos do some major poop control especialy on the rocks. and for hermits nothing beats a scarlet. I jsut got a about a dozen Nerites and they seem to do a great job also.

I have:
Snails:
mexican turbos, trochus, nassarius, nerite, margharita's, queens conch, cerith, astrea's, abalone racer, tiger cowrie.
crabs:
scarlet, blue leg, emerald, and some others can't remember.

I also have brittle stars and serpent stars, and 1 cucumber.

and as Rich stated a ton of flow.

damn I didn't realize how many cleaners I have until just now. tank is clean, so who cares.

Good luck
Frank

[ May 01, 2005, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: glipper69 ]