Detritus in nps tank

[dingodan87]

Looking to hear others aproaches to battling their detritus buildup. With my continuous fed system the smount of detritus is insane. I alternate currents ramping up to 100% and down, keep some ceriths and nassarius (think the few gorilla crabs i cant catch are killing some of them, or maybe its the pistol shrimp?), large brittle star, have insane amounts of fauna, and vacum the sump often but can never come close to a remotely white sand bed. It even covers the rocks. Sand bed is sugar fine ao i cant really vacum it. I assume the comon answer is more flow so maybe its my poor rockwork design creating so many deadspots because my powerheads are top of the line.

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[Subsea]

Originally Posted by dingodan87

Looking to hear others aproaches to battling their detritus buildup. With my continuous fed system the smount of detritus is insane. I alternate currents ramping up to 100% and down, keep some ceriths and nassarius (think the few gorilla crabs i cant catch are killing some of them, or maybe its the pistol shrimp?), large brittle star, have insane amounts of fauna, and vacum the sump often but can never come close to a remotely white sand bed. It even covers the rocks. Sand bed is sugar fine ao i cant really vacum it. I assume the comon answer is more flow so maybe its my poor rockwork design creating so many deadspots because my powerheads are top of the line.

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Good circulation is very important. The only exception to my knowledge is cryptic zone filtration. How long has your tank been set up. Tell me about your
constant feed system. Without knowing more, I will say that you are feeding too much with insufficient consumers. Have you considered using probiotic bacteria to seed your tank?

https://www.tlc-products.com/productscience/

[dingodan87]

Originally Posted by Subsea

Good circulation is very important. The only exception to my knowledge is cryptic zone filtration. How long has your tank been set up. Tell me about your
constant feed system. Without knowing more, I will say that you are feeding too much with insufficient consumers. Have you considered using probiotic bacteria to seed your tank?

https://www.tlc-products.com/productscience/

Wow all this time i thought no one had responded.. i feed alot of phyto and rotifeast 24/7 and feed a small amount of a fauna marin mix twice daily. I also dose vinegar and vitc. I have a large ats and a very undersized skimmer (for now) BUT.. nitrates 0 phosphates .5..not bad. I also run gfo and carbon and have automated daily water changes. But the amount of detritus in the tank is obscene. All over rocks and every surface despite very aggressive alternating gyre flow. Inhabitants are sponges tunicates flame scallops ive had for over a year few gorgs and 2 very small scleros that are growing

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[dingodan87]

40ml shellfish diet and 20 ml rotifeast daily via refridgerated auto dosing

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[dingodan87]

Lots of online debate regarding this.. how effective are skimmers at preventing detritus build up? If nitrates and phosphates are handled elsewhere is there a better tool than a skimmer for preventing detritus

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[Moort82]

If your detritus is settling on the rocks then you may need more flow to keep it in suspension and be dealt with. When I had my nps tank I had a little hidden powerful ter behind the Rock full of filter floss which pulled out lots, I actually felt quite ashamed of how dirty it looked but there isn't really a way around it.

[dingodan87]

Originally Posted by Moort82

If your detritus is settling on the rocks then you may need more flow to keep it in suspension and be dealt with. When I had my nps tank I had a little hidden powerful ter behind the Rock full of filter floss which pulled out lots, I actually felt quite ashamed of how dirty it looked but there isn't really a way around it.

Ter?

Originally Posted by dingodan87

Lots of online debate regarding this.. how effective are skimmers at preventing detritus build up? If nitrates and phosphates are handled elsewhere is there a better tool than a skimmer for preventing detritus

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[Moort82]

Originally Posted by dingodan87

Ter?



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Sorry its the annoying way my tablet changes words. Its meant to say power filter. It also changed nudi's into nudist when I was saying how they come out at night elsewhere today

[dingodan87]

Nice! What are your thoughts on skimmers reducing detritus buildup?

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[Moort82]

Originally Posted by dingodan87

Nice! What are your thoughts on skimmers reducing detritus buildup?

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I believe they help, how much I don't know because I wouldn't like to go through the content of the collecting cup but I always heavy skimmed from the start so it was a constant and couldn't tell you if there would have been a change. The power filter did work pretty well and I had it directed at a known dead spot which was also good.
As I could hide it I ran it 24/7 but got the idea from when I water changed my reef as I used to add a filter, blast the rockwork with a powered or turkey baster and leave it going overnight. The next day you'd see a lot of crud collected. If it's your rockwork which is covered maybe a similar approach might work. The longer you can keep the detritus in suspension the easier it is to deal with.

[dingodan87]

Alright thanx for the tip. I try to minimize cords in the display but id rather have clean rocks.

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[2smokes]

To eliminate the detritus you could treat the water with KMnO4 (potasium permanganate) but carefull if you have snails or you could use an ozone generator but with a redox sensor always.That will eliminate the detritus but is mostly used for sps tanks where you need cristal clear water so that most light will get on the corals .On a NPS tank detritus might help the corals as i think most of the NPS live right where the detritus is in the sea.Kent makes a KMnO4 solution to get cristal clear water and eliminate detritus ,its called kent polyox.

[dingodan87]

Originally Posted by 2smokes

To eliminate the detritus you could treat the water with KMnO4 (potasium permanganate) but carefull if you have snails or you could use an ozone generator but with a redox sensor always.That will eliminate the detritus but is mostly used for sps tanks where you need cristal clear water so that most light will get on the corals .On a NPS tank detritus might help the corals as i think most of the NPS live right where the detritus is in the sea.Kent makes a KMnO4 solution to get cristal clear water and eliminate detritus ,its called kent polyox.

Cool ill look into it thanks. I agree some of the detritus can feed the corals once re suspended and maintaining suspension was my original plan but its too hard to do without creating sandstorms

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