crap in my tank

[fishfanatic2]

Ive been having a problem with detritus in my tank. I cant get rid of it. It appears as brown dust that coats everything, giving the tank a muddy appearance. I vacuum every other week with water changes to get rid of it, and while I remove a ton, it comes back, as if it is growing. The tank is 5 years old, although I replaced all the live rock about 6 months ago to remove a hair algae problem that I had battled for several years. The sand has been in the tank from the beginning. System specs are as follows

29 gal. tank, open top
prism skimmer
emperor power filter
130 watts PC light
maxijet 1200 for flow
heater
1 eibli angel
1 yellow watchman
2 brittle stars
1 florida conch (the 4 inchers)
Many, many small feather dusters (hitchhikers)

I water change 6 gallons every other week.
A snail did die in the tank, and I failed to notice it in time to remove it-this was almost a year ago.

I hope to add coral soon, but I can't get a clean tank or decent coralline growth. The dust/detritus/**** congregates under the rock and in areas of lower flow; I really dont know what to do anymore.

Any suggestions?

 

[Brian5000]

I have that in my tank, though not nearly as bad as you describe. I just thought it was worms moving around inside the rock pushing crud out. I'd find piles of it at the base of my rocks every morning for the first month. I sucked it out every other day. Now, it's not nearly as bad entering into month 3 of this live rock.
_________________
Honda Odyssey

 

[Anonymous]

Do a maxi jet mod for more flow to keep the crap suspended and get a better skimmer to remove the crap.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you sure it is detritus and not an diatom?

 

[Anonymous]

i agree with anemonebuff..

get more flow and a better skimmer.

you should have enough flow that detritus cannot sit idle at the bottom of the tank. of course every tank will have detritus on the bottom somewhere but it will be moving or caught into a low flow corner. it should not be allowed to settle to the bottom of the maintank awaiting removal.

your skimmer is pretty low-end.
i have never owned one, but have seen them in action.
if your skimmer is not powerful enough to get the muck out of the water column then the water column will become saturated with gunk and it will effectively dissolve less gunk from the bottom.

i am not saying you need to buy a new skimmer to have the desired effect, you might be able to modify it with an airstone or something.

also the canister filter is not something i would have running all the time.