25g Mid-Week Detritus Export Video
 

The subject came up in other threads about how much detritus can be removed from a BB tank. Here's a video made this morning of my 25g Mid-Week Detritus Export regime. Please note, there aren't any fish or inverts in this tank - except for the inverts that hitch hiked in on the LR. Seeing how dirty the water gets mid-week and during weekly maintenance, I'm so glad to have a BB tank :)

Hey Bev do you do house calls :mrgreen:

I have a 60 gallon bare bottom tank with two fish... my foxface makes a big mess. I usually stick a filtersock in the sump which filters anything that goes down the overflow, then use a tube to target siphon detris out and into the sock. Then I remove the sock and clean it out. Works good, but it would be nice to find an easier way.

Why not just use a clean up crew?

I use the same technique but let my two skimmers do the dirty work.
That leads to more frequent skimmer cup cleaning but hey i need to do it anyway.
To make this work a lot of internal water flow is a must to keep particles suspended.
i doubt that any clean up crew will go for the dirt that has no nutritional value.
Filter feeders and cucumbers will, to a degree but they also generate waste so it a vicious circle the more life we put inside the more waste it will generate even is we call it "Clean up crew"

Or have the powerheads aimed to suspend the detrius in the water column and get a hob skimmer or your hob filter to remove them ?

You beat me too it !

Beverly is using HOB

LOL, Rich!

Marko, besides a few corals that don't get fed, are stomatella snails (lots now, after the spawning event a few months ago), pods and a few small brittle stars - which would all qualify as a clean up crew, wouldn't you say? Man, they leave a mess! I get about this much crud when I do weekly maintanance, too.

Don't you all wonder what's accumulating in your sandbeds?!

Hey Bev,

Do you rinse in the bucket because you want to use only tank or RO water. I never really went that far when rinsing sponges, but maybe I should have. Would you do the same for socks?

And second thought, maybe you just did it for our benefit to see how dirty they are. Sorry blonde moment

I use tank water in the bucket to rinse the foams to preserve the nitrfying bacteria in the foams. RO or tapwater would kill the bacteria. I don't use socks, but would probably use the same method for rinsing. I've read that some people have a bunch of socks that they rotate daily and wash, which might be better than simply rinsing them.