Sand sifters for detritus on BB tank

[Alazo1]

I have a 120g that is bb. I cannot get to all of the detritus that builds up when I vacuum. It's hard to get more flow into those areas due to rock layout, corals and vermitid snails which there are a lot throughout the tank.

What's your ideas on having some kind of sand sifters to help in getting the detritus into suspension.

thanks,
Albert

 

[ichthyogeek]

I don't think it would be healthy for the fish long term. If one of the natural behaviors of the fish is to sift sand, removing the sand prevents the fish from exhibiting and using that behavior. That also will do nothing to combat your excess detritus.

The detritus is building up in areas of the tank where there is low flow. Which makes sense. Adding a fish or two won't really suspend enough detritus for it to get into the overflow, and detritus will more than likely just build back up again.

Can you show us areas of the tank where there is detritus build up that you can't reach?

 

[Coralsdaily]

TBH, if you have a bare bottom and have detritus build up, it means you aren't having enough flow in your tank. I used to have that problem when I had sub-par flow. I then upgraded to a larger vortech and now I no longer have detritus build up. So maybe instead of investing on any unhappy critter with no sand to sift, per ichthylogeek's point, you might consider upgrading your wavemaker.

 

[Alazo1]

Here's a few pics. Detritus forms under the cave on the left of the tank as well as in the center. It's very hard to get under the cave due to the tabling coral and tank is 24" high.

I have 2mp40's and have experimented with different settings. This was enough flow up until about 3 months ago when the vermiteds (I think they are anyways) moved in the floor of the tank.

 

[ichthyogeek]

What might work, is if you use some form of waterproof wiring to kink the hose at a 90 or 45 degree angle, so you can more easily siphon out detritus without putting half your body into the tank itself.

 

[SDK]

Buy a small power head or use a spare pump if you have one laying around. You can use it like a leaf blower to blast the detritus out of hard to get areas. Do it before your water/filter sock change and you will get most of it.

While you are in there, you can also periodically blow the accumulated detritus out of your live rock pores. You will be amazed how much gunk will come out of your rock. I’ve been doing this for years and believe that it helps prevent what many call “old tank syndrome”.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I like to take a turkey blaster or one of the small powerheads and blast all the caves and crevices out before I preform the actual water change as said above^