Can Keeping Detritus Suspended Harm Fish?

[Forsaken77]

I have my gyre positioned and set in a way so that it basically sweeps the top of the sand and suspends all detritus. With a strong flow around the tank, can flying debris, even tiny sizes, harm the fish's eyes?

I have had a few fish develop eye problems. One went completely blind and another has trouble seeing. I'm wondering if the rapid movement of detritus and silt flying around is hurting their eyes.

 

[Brew12]

I have my gyre positioned and set in a way so that it basically sweeps the top of the sand and suspends all detritus. With a strong flow around the tank, can flying debris, even tiny sizes, harm the fish's eyes?

I have had a few fish develop eye problems. One went completely blind and another has trouble seeing. I'm wondering if the rapid movement of detritus and silt flying around is hurting their eyes.

I wouldn't have thought so. The majority of our tanks have less flow than a reef and there is plenty of detritus on a reef. Not sure why Cozumel doesn't start using filter socks....

I'm curious to see how others in #reefsquad feel.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I wouldn't think so either. If you are having eye problems with your fish is it possible there is a parasite or bacterial infection running around in your tank that is effecting them?

 

[Greybeard]

Hm. The amount of turbulence and particulates moving around on your average reef are way higher than most of us try for. Add to that the occasional storm blowing through, when things get _really_ wild on a reef, and it would seem unlikely that most fishes wouldn't be able to deal with the occasional fast moving particle in the water column.

I'd be looking for some other reason for your fishes eye troubles.

 

[Forsaken77]

I wouldn't think so either. If you are having eye problems with your fish is it possible there is a parasite or bacterial infection running around in your tank that is effecting them?

This seems to happen over a long period, 1-2 years. This tank is also a 93 cube, so the fish have less of an area to hide and much more flow around the tank. When I crank up the gyre to clear the crap, most of the fish hide in the center of the rockwork, which isn't much.

 

[Forsaken77]

Hm. The amount of turbulence and particulates moving around on your average reef are way higher than most of us try for. Add to that the occasional storm blowing through, when things get _really_ wild on a reef, and it would seem unlikely that most fishes wouldn't be able to deal with the occasional fast moving particle in the water column.

I'd be looking for some other reason for your fishes eye troubles.

That's what I thought as well, but in nature fish have a lot of room to avoid flying silt and debris. This is a 93 cube with an immense amount of flow rotating around the limited dimensions of the tank. Also, the flow keeps stuff suspended at every level of the tank and it's whipping around at a high velocity with limited room for the fish to escape it. They hide in the rockwork, which is more open as not to trap detritus from the overflow. So they have little protection and no eyelids, lol.

I'm leaving the gyre off for all but 30 minutes to clear the tank once a day.

But this is a situation I've never experienced before with the fish.

 

[DSC reef]

I couldn't imagine enough turbulence can be made to have the detritus actually damage a fishes eye in a reef tank.

 

[Forsaken77]

I couldn't imagine enough turbulence can be made to have the detritus actually damage a fishes eye in a reef tank.

It's not a reef tank. It's a FOWLR tank. So you don't think that small pieces of a hard pellet, or sand, flying out of the gyre could cause eye injury to fish? Seriously asking. Because we all know how much power a gyre has. And the limited cube keeps it whirling around constantly.

Especially when the fish are along the bottom where the flow is highest to kick stuff up. There isn't much shelter in the cube for medium size fish.

Just perplexed at what could cause this over a long period of time. My Blue Throat has a permanent white mark dead center of his eye, which is a trauma mark, but that's been there for a while and he see's fine. It's one of my wrasses. The other wrasse is fine and has only been in the tank 6 months less over a 3 year period.

I just don't know what else it could be. Maybe the Hawaiian Black sand?

 

[DSC reef]

Reef or fowler, what's the difference? No, I do not think your flow can cause detritus to cause eye damage on your fish. Fish scrape rocks, water quality, etc, are more likely causes. We've used oolite to thick grain sand, never an issue. I've watched our fish over the years bounce off rocks and corals damaging there eyes our body when they get into spats.