Crushed coral & detritus build up

[TheGooseWhisperer]

I have about an inch of crushed coral on the bottom of my tank (29g w/ ~30lb LR) and I'm starting to get detritus build up in hard to reach places. I cant get into most of the spots and gravel vac it during WCs so I've been relying on using a turkey baster or fanning it with my hand to get it kicked up in to the water and then let my MJ900/1200 run w/ sponge prefilters for a bit and then rise them out. The tank looks like a snowstorm when I do this and I'm afraid its going to coat the rocks/corals as it builds up more and more. From what i've seen people usually have sand and rely on sand sifting critters...not sure what the best way to control the build up is and I would appreciate some advise.

[ghiggi]

When I first started out, I had crushed coral in my FOWLR. It was a constant nightmare like you described. Not only does the detrius build up, it usually contributes to continuously high params (nitrate, phosphate, etc.)

 

I found the best way to manually take care of the detrius was just as you are now, using a turkey baster and a powerfilter. You should also have a good clean-up crew of crabs and snails. They'll help break down the detrius into smaller particles that can readily enter the water stream and get carried to your filter.

 

Of coarse, the best thing to do is get rid of the crushed coral and go with a sand bottom. It didn't matter how much I cleaned and did water changes, I could never keep my nitrates down while I had the crushed coral. Once I changed to a sand only bottom, my nitrates became more managable.

 

Hope this helps,

[kriswaters]

It will pass with time. It take a while for everything to mature and even out, then it all becomes homeostatic!

 

Kris

[spectra]

Do you have any sandsifters now? If not get a few nesarius snails and maybe a few conchs in there. My conches clean up alot of detritus in the tank.

[TheGooseWhisperer]

Right now I only have one fish remaining from my ich breakout (well, the Potter's never actually showed signs of ich, but went from behaving normal to hiding in a cave breathing fast to dead in about 36-48 hrs). The watchman goby has a white patch (about the size of his dorsal fin) on his side that has not changed in over a week now and hes behaving normal. I've been trying to avoid stirring up too much gunk lately because I'm worried about stressing the system and contributing to the goby's death.

 

I did get an emerald crab (just cuz I like them) and I have about 6 blue/red legged hermits. Most of the detritus at this point is actually from my cleanup crew:p So I guess its more processed than fish poop would be. I've changed from a 20% WC every week to every 2 weeks. I also, increased my circulation from a MJ900 and MJ1200 on a wave-maker to just having both of them on all the time. Side-note: when i increased the circulation I noticed almost overnight thin strands on a large portion of the glass...from what I've read people have said it is bacteria or the result of increased bacterial activity. I just took it as a rebalancing of the system after I made a change and dont plan on doing anything about it. Sound good?

 

I also took off the overflow box from the HOB skimmer so that I can continue running the skimmer through out a WC (when there is the most stuff suspended in the water column). While the tank was finishing the cycle and for the next month or so I was having issues with an "oil-slick" on the surface and the overflow box on the skimmer helped with that...now that problem is gone so I thought removing the box would be better for the long term health of the tank.

 

At this point I think I'm with Kris...it will balance out in time. Nitrates read zero, but I have minimal fish load and don't feed much right now. My shrooms are much larger then they have ever been and one of my zoa frags has really come alive lately...a couple weeks ago the surface would be about half polyp and half rock...now you can barely see the rock surface with the polyps opening up much larger than they had before. Frogspawn and toadstool also seems perfectly happy. So while I feel like there is more detritus then there should be, all the livestock appears very healthy. I just stir up a bit of gunk during WCs and will continue to do such. Maybe I'll toss in one of those nesarius snails sometime, but I dont see going through changing the substrate or adding any other livestock. Things might change when I start restocking fish, but I'm going to do it much slower this time.

[snowpunk]

I was running a 29 also when I started. Thats where my watchman still resides although not mine any more. The one thing I always had to tell myself is that the tank is very small so things are gonna change very fast. One fish in a 125 will have a very small effect on the bio-load if any, compared to the 29, where one fish could throw it just over the edge. There is less give room with a 29. Anyone with a nano will tell you that too. I kept working at mine to make it run perfect, and it did for about 3 years until I upgraded. Now my friend is running the 29 under my watchful eye. Doing it well I might add too. I only had sand in mine so my watchman could sift it through his gills to clean it. Don't know if you knew they did that or not. My tank now has both and as the coral comes to the top I try to take it out a little at a time. I've always thought of it as a good fish only tank bottom. I have no clue really though. You may want to switch to sand just for the fact that it is fun to watch the watchman(no pun intended) sift it. He will help keep it clean like this also. As much as a 2" fish can do anyway. Another note, maybe not fact but IMO it seems that gobys are less effected by ich then other fish.

[TheGooseWhisperer]

A green clown goby was the first to show ich and was dead in 2 days...next to catch it was my female perc clown, then the male, then a yellow clown goby. The female died pretty fast and then the YCG went. I thought the male was going to pull through when the cloudiness lessened and he started behaving a bit more normally, but then he was gone when I got home from work 2 days later. At that point I thought it was all over...the Potter's accepted cleanings from the cleaner shrimp and was eating and behaving well so I thought it would pull through...I was wrong again...he went from appearing normal to dead in 2 days. I thought the watchman was a goner for sure, but hes held strong the longest.

 

And he does sift the crushed coral through his gills too...sometimes he gets a piece thats too big though and he has to just spit it out:p If he doesn't make it I will definitely get another one. While we are talking about ich...I was going to wait 4 weeks after the outbreak is over to get a new fish...or should I wait longer?

[snowpunk]

Ich goes through stages so you will need to treat the tank for a while. I would call seahorse, they have a 2 part treatment that works great. I forget the name of it but here is the number 503-283-4788. Isaac is great, he will get you what you need. Many on here go to him.

 

The goby thing, I was thinking more the ones like the watchman not the nano goby type. Never had one of those.