Just looking around the tank, I happened to notice something that shocked me, I couldn't believe I didn't notice this before. In the corner of my 90G, in the overflow compartment, there is a good 2 inches of detritus packed in there. That CANNOT be good, right? The tank (5 years old now) is actually doing well, and the coral are healthy, but I've always struggled with some excess nutrients/algae. Is this something I need to take care of? If so, just siphon it out? I'm worried that if I do attempt to clean it, it's going to shock and throw the system off. Any ideas here?
2 Inches of Detritus in Overflow
- Thread starter Jmunk
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it cannot shock, easy to remove. we remove that much waste when we do sandbed swaps, entire sandbeds are rip cleaned or swapped out totally all at once in our sand rinse thread...so removing it from an undisturbed area is certainly no harm. lucky design in fact. still the system, insert siphon hose and remove the fertilizer. not that its massively harmful/your tank has adapted and lots of people really do keep that much in sandbeds, yours just presents nice access area its ok to use that ability to clean up
*if you have a sandbed Id be curious to see the cross section pic of it at the front of the tank
*if you have a sandbed Id be curious to see the cross section pic of it at the front of the tank
I like the way we're making progress in the hobby regarding bacterial tolerance, access tolerance this is long overdue. a mere 5 yrs ago if you mentioned swapping a sand bed, THE BACTERIA DIED
mfinn
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If your down tubes are not glued in, just pull one up ( after you turn off the return pump) and let it drain into the sump.
You could even dump some water down it to help flush it.
Then suck it out of the sump and do a water change on the sump.
You could even dump some water down it to help flush it.
Then suck it out of the sump and do a water change on the sump.
are there any other catch points in the display system not as easy to get to? if so, we should get to them and redesign those areas to not collect, thats the fun work
if you can reach in and grab sand and drop it/no cloud, then export balances are in place. if not its something to consider before things compound. same for rocks, there's a rocks-cleaning thread lately and it has people discussing the benefits of occasionally making sure live rock pores arent packed with detritus. perhaps your flow is so good up front it all just catches in the corner but it'd be neat to see if any other design aspects are retaining the stuff
*we can source out reefers who right now have and maintain more detritus piles than that, its not a homewrecker, we don't think its bad/ its just experimenting with different zonation in reefing and those associated outcome changes to either remove or store that waste. eutrophic zones that support plant growth tend to store it, turtlegrass beds for example, and high action fringing reefs do not store it, and corals grow in both places. to modulate it is to experiment with altering the backround support zone. it takes surgical methods to deal with detritus in whole tank work threads, its dangerous when its been compacted in low oxygen areas then re exposed to display organisms up above
that above is cured in high 02 and is colonized by aerobic het bac and if you mix it around you fertilize the tank but not kill it.
that much detritus from a deep sand bed welled up can certainly kill the whole tank and we have it on file doing so before intervention.
I predict going off prior BOD samples seen in labs of wastewater ponds, that x number of waste grams of detritus above sucks oxygen out of your tank to the tune of one medium tang's worth per interval of measure. that's another reason to remove detritus, prepping tanks for power outages/o2 max etc. the pile of detritus above has a measurable load on your oxygen levels by being substrate to two billion feeding aerobic bac, noncycling kind. co2 emitting, o2 consuming, waste acid producing kind. this is no harsh judge of detritus/marine snow, merely an evaluation of ways you can measure impacts from it as dilution goes down.
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Dan's nutrient measure of detritus
if you can reach in and grab sand and drop it/no cloud, then export balances are in place. if not its something to consider before things compound. same for rocks, there's a rocks-cleaning thread lately and it has people discussing the benefits of occasionally making sure live rock pores arent packed with detritus. perhaps your flow is so good up front it all just catches in the corner but it'd be neat to see if any other design aspects are retaining the stuff
*we can source out reefers who right now have and maintain more detritus piles than that, its not a homewrecker, we don't think its bad/ its just experimenting with different zonation in reefing and those associated outcome changes to either remove or store that waste. eutrophic zones that support plant growth tend to store it, turtlegrass beds for example, and high action fringing reefs do not store it, and corals grow in both places. to modulate it is to experiment with altering the backround support zone. it takes surgical methods to deal with detritus in whole tank work threads, its dangerous when its been compacted in low oxygen areas then re exposed to display organisms up above
that above is cured in high 02 and is colonized by aerobic het bac and if you mix it around you fertilize the tank but not kill it.
that much detritus from a deep sand bed welled up can certainly kill the whole tank and we have it on file doing so before intervention.
I predict going off prior BOD samples seen in labs of wastewater ponds, that x number of waste grams of detritus above sucks oxygen out of your tank to the tune of one medium tang's worth per interval of measure. that's another reason to remove detritus, prepping tanks for power outages/o2 max etc. the pile of detritus above has a measurable load on your oxygen levels by being substrate to two billion feeding aerobic bac, noncycling kind. co2 emitting, o2 consuming, waste acid producing kind. this is no harsh judge of detritus/marine snow, merely an evaluation of ways you can measure impacts from it as dilution goes down.
Substrate Vacuuming. An Analysis
I have often wondered how much material (is it all detritus?) is removed from a substrate when it is vacuumed. I am moving the contents of a 40 gallon aquarium to a 75 gallon aquarium and some or all of the sand is going. I am taking the opportunity for a small substrate study and I am looking...
www.reef2reef.com
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I pull my tubes to flush out the overflows when I do a WC and change filter socks monthly. My WC volume includes empty overflows. You can actually increase the volume of your WC by the size of your overflow without dropping tank water level.
AllSignsPointToFish
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Seems like I accumulate that much every week! Lol
That’s mulm. Takes a long time to form, takes flat void surfaces and turns them into 3 dimensional helpful bacteria, of sorts. Plenty of reads on the Benefits.
Here’s one
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?threads/mulm-in-a-reef-tank.96965/
Here’s one
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?threads/mulm-in-a-reef-tank.96965/
ca1ore
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This was the exact point I was going to make.
Was thinking this too. Maybe I shouldn't even touch it, then? I'm not sure what the right course of action is. I'm hesitant touch anything just because, things are going well (other than some higher nutrients). What ain't broke lol
I only clean out what settles on the bottom of the overflow
ca1ore
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I periodically siphon accumulated detritus from my frag tank; not because I think it is a source of excess nutrients, but because it is an aesthetic eyesore. Always have let any accumulation at the bottom of the weir remain. It ends up being a home for worms, mysis and copepods.
Jmunk post full tank shot let’s see current balances to get a reasonable idea of how the system is maturing
Details besides the corals stand out, like pocketing yes or no in the corner areas and small details like pigmentation if any in lower areas of sandbed, all clear from a normal full tank shot. Let’s see if overall environment is shifting towards or away from plants or monerans that are associated with pockets of feed, I think the overall scape and balance needs to be factored along with a small pocket of waste to get the big picture.
Details besides the corals stand out, like pocketing yes or no in the corner areas and small details like pigmentation if any in lower areas of sandbed, all clear from a normal full tank shot. Let’s see if overall environment is shifting towards or away from plants or monerans that are associated with pockets of feed, I think the overall scape and balance needs to be factored along with a small pocket of waste to get the big picture.
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ca1ore
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ALL posts (well 99.9% of them) lack supporting studies showing multi aquarium examples LOL. I’ve done a few clumsy experiments to mostly convince myself that a few pockets of detritus/mulm aren’t a big deal, so I don’t overreact. In matter of fact, I try not to overreact to anything short of a busted seam on my tanks.
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