More Help Please

[Nexus13]

i've been noticing more and more what looks like brown organic material building up on the sandbed in my tank.

what is this and is there anything that will eat it up?



thanks

[Nexus13]

i've been trying to vacuum this stuff up but it doesnt' vacuum easily, (quite heavy i guess)

Is it stuff that a skimmer should be pulling off?

i have an AquaC remora hang on skimmer on my 10 Gallon sump but it doens't really pull that much junk from my tank.

[christyf5]

What do you have for flow in your tank? You may need to increase the flow to get it into the water column and out of the tank. You can also try turkey basting it or stirring it to get it into the water column. I'm not sure if a cleanup crew (something like a sand sifting star or cerith snails) would help. When I had a sandbed in my tank I had that as well, its just a fine dust of detritus (fish poop and rock sloughing) and it ended up choking out the sandbed. I had a heck of a time keeping up with it and eventually gave up my sandbed, its much easier to vacuum up without a sandbed.

[Nexus13]

but sand looks so nice!

what do you have now that there's no sand?

[christyf5]

I have glass!
For me this was truly the best option. Unfortunately I lack whatever talent it takes to maintain a sandbed. Once I removed the sand my tank just took off and its been fantastic ever since. I just siphon off the little piles of detritus during my weekly waterchange and it works like a charm.

[Nexus13]

yah that extra detritus can't be good for the tank. Hmmmm... Sand makes it look so natural though. i've rearranged my rocks today so the debris can't really pile up in hidden places and changed to flow to bring out the detritus to the main part of the tank where its easy to see.

what kind of differences did you see after losing the sand?

I've never had this probelm before and have had the tank going for a 1 year now.