You're all nuts....well maybe.

[C. Eymann]

Not sure where you got the idea detritus dossent feed some corals. Detritus feeds many SPS corals.

Agreed! detritus stirring was one of the orginal methods of feeding coral! detritus isn't just fish poop/decomposing organics- key word there decomposing= bacteria, corals will also feed on the bacterias as well as the poo!

Peter Wilkens first started doing this back in the late 70s/80s in Germany to successfully keep non photosynthetic corals like dendronepthya /sclecronepthya (spelling?)
I think there is even a picture of him doing it in one of the Julian Sprungs book series if I remember correctly.

 

[WVNed]

Some people mulch and some collect the leaves and trash them.

 

[topjimmy]

*you're......

 

[krbshappy71]

Newbie following along. I'm all about how can I make my future tank easier but I still want clarity. At an LFS we visited I was shown a 75g and it only had a canister filter. The person was nice and all but the tank....ugh...it's just not what I'm envisioning my future tank looking like and if that's the best it can get with a canister then I want more than a canister. If changing out filter socks every day is what I end up doing to get my "dream" tank then so be it even if I have to save up more $ to have more on hand. It does seem this hobby has a million variables depending on what is important to the tank owner. Thank you for posting this!

 

[fish farmer]

Of course it will settle, mostly in my sump just where I like it. Never on my rocks, some in the sand on the bottom hist where the cuc like it. After years and years you would be hard pressed to see any detritus on my rocks or top of the sand. BTW I also have lots of flow in my DT.

Looking at your tank it seems that you have effectively been able to keep detritus from building up in your display.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Detritus obeys the laws of gravity..it will eventually settle in rocks, sand, under corals. Do you want a tank covered with brown detritus? Some will need to be exported at some point or you tank will have piles of detritus. Now if you run crazy flow, BB, detritus will settle somewhere else.....but it will still settle.

you need detrivores, right? Worms, pods, etc.

 

[Doctorgori]

No socks here...but then again both sumps has a aberrant fish or inverts
et

a lot of stuff settles out for easy removal anyway

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

He knows too much.

I second that, he better be careful Aquarium Big Brother might wack him, take him down. And no body would miss him. Hahaha

 

[hart24601]

I have markedly reduced water clarity if not running socks and my sump will accumulate a lot of detritus which I don't want in there going to the DT and obscuring the bottom of the sump.

Just because no mechanical filtration works for one person and doesn't change visibility in their DT does not mean it's the same for everyone and every tank.

Considering my filter socks have lasted years and still going the only cost is running the washing machine every few weeks I am not giving them up unless I see some strong reasons to do so.

 

[brandon429]

when one doesnt have to manage detritus: on the upside of the reefing bell curve which might last years depending on system design and dilution. one must engineer a tank to work with detritus, we can't just cure ailments in current tanks by leaving it alone to compound, thats key. overall I agree its marine snow when balanced by design and tank care routines. I think that needed to be added to the first post.


when someone absolutely must manage, usually by removing, detritus:
-any thread involving how to move tanks home to home without loss.
-any thread involving deep sandbed access of any type, other than leaving it alone landmine style 1996.
-GHA persistent issue threads, that filth feeds gha and houses N and P that can't be uptaken elsewhere. bacteria break it down while detritus is attached to algae fronds, and becomes a localized source of feed for a eutrophic system
-anytime one runs a tank correction thread for generalized invasions. if we rely on water dosers only, leaving detritus, your entrant's tanks never get free of invasion. it trades off between invaders constantly feeding on the same waste. accurate detritus management uses it, it doesn't let it compile and rot inside unless a specific design and plan warrants that.

for the average tank, detritus is a really big deal and its not beneficial for us in nearly all the work I sign up for online.

if we google eutrophic vs oligotrophic and select when condition we'd prefer in a reef, detritus is among the top if not the top physical mass determining which condition the tank is in between those two environmental conditions.

In all forms of sandbed access work and risk, detritus is the sole cause of setup recycles and total loss cascades, clean grains of sand cannot cause such events. detritus is serious biz for people moving homes

You have to be dynamic in reefing regarding detritus, knowing how to wield it if you want to reef in full control.

here's a nutrient breakdown study of detritus, Dan P nice one

Substrate Vacuuming. An Analysis

I have often wondered how much material (is it all detritus?) is removed from a substrate when it is vacuumed. I am moving the contents of a 40 gallon aquarium to a 75 gallon aquarium and some or all of the sand is going. I am taking the opportunity for a small substrate study and I am looking...

www.reef2reef.com

************anybody in outage prone areas, Cali, storms and hurricane areas, detritus in your system is a massive lifespan limiter bc its substrate for competing aerobes that sap o2 away from your fish, fast. cleaning your system to be detritus free before the insult/stilled outage time adds critical lifespan time to ride you over until power on, hopefully.

 

[atoll]

Looking at your tank it seems that you have effectively been able to keep detritus from building up in your display.

With not just plenty of water movement but the correct water movement which is just as important IME

 

[fish farmer]

you need detrivores, right? Worms, pods, etc.

Everything poops, detritus continues to break down, but the biomass is still there whether it is a pod, worm, forams, sps polyps. It's about balance....if I add a cube of food to my tank I'm overfeeding, for a bigger tank that could be underfeeding. Detritus IS food, by the way I do believe that, but for some tanks and how they are managed may be TOO MUCH food.

 

[fish farmer]

With not just plenty of water movement but the correct water movement which is just as important IME

Do you ever pull detritus out of your sump and feed your tank with it?

 

[d2mini]

when one doesnt have to manage detritus: on the upside of the reefing bell curve which might last years depending on system design and dilution. one must engineer a tank to work with detritus, we can't just cure ailments in current tanks by leaving it alone to compound, thats key. overall I agree its marine snow when balanced by design and tank care routines. I think that needed to be added to the first post.


when someone absolutely must manage, usually by removing, detritus:
-any thread involving how to move tanks home to home without loss.
-any thread involving deep sandbed access of any type, other than leaving it alone landmine style 1996.
-GHA persistent issue threads, that filth feeds gha and houses N and P that can't be uptaken elsewhere. bacteria break it down while detritus is attached to algae fronds, and becomes a localized source of feed for a eutrophic system
-anytime one runs a tank correction thread for generalized invasions. if we rely on water dosers only, leaving detritus, your entrant's tanks never get free of invasion. it trades off between invaders constantly feeding on the same waste. accurate detritus management uses it, it doesn't let it compile and rot inside unless a specific design and plan warrants that.

for the average tank, detritus is a really big deal and its not beneficial for us in nearly all the work I sign up for online.

if we google eutrophic vs oligotrophic and select when condition we'd prefer in a reef, detritus is among the top if not the top physical mass determining which condition the tank is in between those two environmental conditions.

In all forms of sandbed access work and risk, detritus is the sole cause of setup recycles and total loss cascades, clean grains of sand cannot cause such events. detritus is serious biz for people moving homes

You have to be dynamic in reefing regarding detritus, knowing how to wield it if you want to reef in full control.

here's a nutrient breakdown study of detritus, Dan P nice one

Substrate Vacuuming. An Analysis

I have often wondered how much material (is it all detritus?) is removed from a substrate when it is vacuumed. I am moving the contents of a 40 gallon aquarium to a 75 gallon aquarium and some or all of the sand is going. I am taking the opportunity for a small substrate study and I am looking...

www.reef2reef.com

The simple fact is that most people in the hobby don't have a single tank set up long term, where a strong build-up of detritus can start to cause issues. 2-3 years is not long term.
Detritus needs to be managed. Thankfully we have various ways of doing so.

 

[HomeSlizzice]

I think I am leaning more and more towards agreeing with you @atoll my LFS is Amazing Aquariums & Reefs in Orange, CA. He has multiple displays that have been set up for 5+ to 10 years. He only runs a skimmer in his sumps. Maybe some carbon every now and then. His displays are amazing and beautiful. He also has plenty of detritus build up in his sumps. He is keeps all of his systems super super simple, but his success can't be argued.

 

[SeaDweller]

i used to run socks. then cleaning them got old. Now I don't and my reef has never looked better.

 

[S2G]

No socks here...but then again both sumps has a aberrant fish or inverts
et

a lot of stuff settles out for easy removal anyway

Can I see more detail on your drain setup? Do you have floss in the oversized pvc?

 

[Albert Bazaar]

So you probably have socks, filter wool, roller mats or whatever some spending hundreds of $ to remove detritus and yet perhaps you are going your tank and animals a disservice or worse still depriving them of valuable food, nutrients and pod life. I have searched and searched the net, read numerous articles but never found anything remotely scientific informing me that detritus is a bad thing and needs to be removed from our tanks and keep the water squeaky clean.
I even suggested to BRS they carry out some simple tests on detritus in an attempt to get at least some reasonable idea of just what detritus is doing to out tanks. They did reply saying they would consider it but had lots of other stuff to report on. That was around a year ago. Now if I was a conspiracy theorist I might think there is no money to be made from not selling prefilter material and equipment after all roller mats are the in thing with a number of companies selling their own versions. Of course I might be wrong and detritus might just be the devils spawn some would make you believe. Personally I think it's good stuff feeding corals and pods. You of course might think differently. I just don't see it after years on having nothing but a skimmer to remove some floating particles from the water column.
So are you nuts then?

Still trying to get everybody's point here.Bear with me guys I'm a Burned out reefer and not the from Maui Waui either.
If you want a pristine coral tank,then off course,remove your detritus.If you want thing like sea cucumber,brittle stars,sponges red balls and branching,non photosynthetic corals and gorgonians(red,orange fans and branching)them detritus is good.
On reefs their is only detritus in the water during high tides.Once tide go out it's cleaned up immediately from all the life on the reef. Intertidal zones have a lot that builds up.Lots of life there and most of the baby fish,stay in these zone nurseries.In the Indian Ocean Madagascar and the Seychelles,one has to only go into 2-3 ft of water to see many baby butterflyfish,Angelfish,wrasses,etc.,etc.,in heavy sand and silt,dead or half dead coral,Linkia,cucumbers,all together.If they don't watch themselves they will end up on shore if a rough sea comes in but so is natures selection.
COMING TO THE POINT NOW FOLKS.What are you trying to accomplish?Shallow water high lighting reef.Deep water reef,lagoon,what?One bill does not fit all they are all different habitats.
ONE THING that does not change is water quality.An intertidal closed off lagoon often has the same water quality as the reef itself except sulfieds and phosphers.But that what's refugiums are for right??For the stuff that doesn't thrive as well as in the main tank.Or am I nuts???That's O.K. I can take it.I have went through 3 Divorces over my animals and aquariums.

 

[KrisReef]

Yup, the ocean has zones where different stuff thrives and they are all connected with water.
The water quality changes along gradients of motion, heat and nutrients. Detritus is not water but is carried about by the water.

My tank has an sps zone with lots of water movement that flows into a sump or a fish tank and then into the sump. Detritus ideally ends up in a sock or in the Skimmer or in the sump. Sadly my sps tank needs more current to move all the detritus out of the tank than the few fish in that tank can survive swimming against, so some setting occurs that must be exported. Most of what I siphon out is sand, coralline algae fragments, and the big “D.”

If I get lazy with siphon work the bad algae starts to grow (slime or bubble). If I let it go too long corals suffer.

The ocean is self cleaning, it’s a matter of scale.

 

[Cory]

I think I am leaning more and more towards agreeing with you @atoll my LFS is Amazing Aquariums & Reefs in Orange, CA. He has multiple displays that have been set up for 5+ to 10 years. He only runs a skimmer in his sumps. Maybe some carbon every now and then. His displays are amazing and beautiful. He also has plenty of detritus build up in his sumps. He is keeps all of his systems super super simple, but his success can't be argued.

Does he do waterchanges? Nice tanks!