Detritus with no fish

[mlivvy]

So i've dealt with detritus for years and just assumed it was produced from fish waste and food. My tank has been fallow for months with corals and 0 fish. CUC is small with just a few snails and crabs. I don't feed other than a small amount of reef roids every few days. I noticed my detritus build up has doubled in the last few months. My sump is a complete mess and i'm changing filter floss twice as much as before. What could be creating so much detritus in a fishless tank?

 

[Glenner’sreef]

So i've dealt with detritus for years and just assumed it was produced from fish waste and food. My tank has been fallow for months with corals and 0 fish. CUC is small with just a few snails and crabs. I don't feed other than a small amount of reef roids every few days. I noticed my detritus build up has doubled in the last few months. My sump is a complete mess and i'm changing filter floss twice as much as before. What could be creating so much detritus in a fishless tank?

Do you have kids?

 

[ColoredRock]

do you have sand?... my tank is fishless .. trust me I need some swimmers. But I also see
a build up

 

[ColoredRock]

do you have sand?... my tank is fishless .. trust me I need some swimmers. But I also see
a build up

SO to add.. New tank setup for me ... Dry rock cycled with a bottle of BIO in a Brute for close to a month. Now in the DT... Have added some canaries in the coal mine.. and those I am actually seeing some growth. added CUC slow. I have sand but minimal (one day I will go bare bottom) 10 certh snails and 2 emeralds this week,,, last week 10 Margarita snails and I started off with 10 Astrea's

Back on point .. do CUC's poop that much!!!!

​

 

[Tamberav]

My coral QT tank doesn’t have fish and it gets plenty from cuc and worms and pod poops and who knows what.

 

[mlivvy]

Do you have kids?

I'm assuming you're asking because kids dump stuff into tanks? My kids are a little older and they have no intereste in the tank unless they can play minecraft on the apex.

 

[mlivvy]

do you have sand?... my tank is fishless .. trust me I need some swimmers. But I also see
a build up

I have about an 1 1/2" sandbed but its pretty clean. Tank has a ton of flow.

 

[Cory]

Rocks will push out bacterial mulm from a sort of pressure as they grow. Also clean up crew will produce some too. Surprised in your finding though as fish do produce the most.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

I'm assuming you're asking because kids dump stuff into tanks? My kids are a little older and they have no intereste in the tank unless they can play minecraft on the apex.

So then on a serious note, do you have live rock? I can turkey baste my rocks weekly and get stuff off. I’m guessing it’s not all fish poo.

 

[ColoredRock]

pretty sure I have come to the realization that:

 

[mlivvy]

So then on a serious note, do you have live rock? I can turkey baste my rocks weekly and get stuff off. I’m guessing it’s not all fish poo.

There's so much flow from the gyres that nothing really settles on the rocks. The tank itself looks clean it all (the gunk) gets pushed down to the sump. The filter floss will turn completely brown in 2 days.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Snails poop a lot, so could be the Astreas you added. I have turbos and it’s noticeable. I also have massive flow in my tank (100x +) but I still baste off my rocks once a week before my water change. It’s amazing where detritus will settle, especially from snails that can get into cracks and crevices.