Dead Pods? Pod poo?

[gemini9]

Some of you know I've been having a bit of a nitrate problem in my new tank. The past 3 times I've done a water change, I took my powerhead and used it to blow off my Live/Dry rock and my substrate. This always stirrs up a huge cloud of debris. White debris. It's all very small and actually looks like dead skin cells or even teeny tiny pods. I tried looking for legs but it's just too small to see. There for awhile, I had a large outbreak of little pods in my system and then they all suddenly disappeared. All the white debris that gets stirred up when I blow off the rocks and crushed coral, could that be dead pods? Could they be causing a nitrate problem? I also take my vacuum hose when siphoning and plunge it deep into the crushed coral bed and it always sucks up allot of dust like stuff. More dead pods maybe? There's no fish in my tank but I keep cleaning out all this gunk. Brown water and gunk in my skimmer and when I rinse the filters on my HOB filter, the rinse water turns brown and gunky. Where's all this gunk and debris coming from if I have no fish? Could it be pods? Dead pods and pod poo???

 

[KillerKlownFish]

Interesting. Do you have snails or crabs? How big is the tank? How much of a water change do you do?

 

[gemini9]

Actually I just bought 2 blue leg hermits and a turbo snail today but before that, no. 30g tank. Its a new setup. Usually a 20 percent wc but did a 50 today. Could the white flakes/debris/specs be pods breeding and dying in there? Ive still got some crawling on the glass and stuff

 

[KillerKlownFish]

I got a 34 gal I've never experienced this maybe because when it cycled I got a few hermits blues/reds/plain. 10 turbo snails a few died. Give it time see of things get better.

 

[gemini9]

What do feed your blue leg hermits if there's not much in the tank for them to eat? Do they eat just regular fish flakes?