Best for Detritus

[Jcar]

What's the best thing you've had eat Detritus from experience? Looking to add a few things mainly to eat as much Detritus as possible

 

[blaxsun]

What do you have currently?

 

[MaxTremors]

Bristle worms, mini brittle stars, spaghetti worms, basically all the microfauna from quality live rock.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

IME nothing really eats detritus in way that it keeps your tank clean. Detritus is basically poop and dead decaying matter, not many living animals will eat poop as their first choice. Especially if you feed the tank every day, they will not choose to eat poop over the good food being fed to the tank.

 

[Idech]

I am certain my snails eat the poop in the tank, as it’s been set up for 6 months now and there is no trace of poop anywhere. I’ve never seen this is any of my tanks, over many decades. This is my first saltwater tank.

When I added my tail spot blenny, there was a lot of accumulation, as this little guy is a poop machine. But a few days later, it was all gone.

I have a trochus snail, a few nerites and 1 nassarius snail but if I had to bet, I would say the nassarius is doing all the work.

So if you don’t have any nassarius snails, definitely get some !

 

[Hadla]

Best IMO is bristleworms since that’s their specialty lol. I know you said you have some but maybe add more? Also like posted above, maybe skip days when feeding and don’t feed as much. My tanks get fed every 3 days but I don’t have coral or animals that need the constant food supply

 

[Jcar]

I have a ton of different organisms all over the live rock and about twenty blue leg hermits. Spots on rocks that don't get direct flow accumulate Detritus/ the white snow type junk especially after 6 months. I blow off most of it with a powehead but if there's something that I can put in there that strictly eats the Detritus that would be great! Save me some effort during tank maintenance. Cerith snails maybe? I have basically everything you could possibly think of that comes in on quality live rock including some limpets. Was hoping someone on here knew some type of snail or hermit crab that eats Detritus. Im pretty sure after a while accumulating Detritus raises my nitrates. I may just figure out a way to vacuum it out if one of clean up crew type animals don't eat it specifically. Would be nice to have something slowly picking away at that stuff. Someone has gotta know something that eats Detritus specifically.

 

[Hadla]

Is there a sand bed? Maybe try a sea cucumber, they’re good at cleaning sand :)

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

Snails will eat detritus, but the absolute best clean up crew is the person keeping the aquarium. Get that gravel vac out!

 

[Wandering Albatross]

Is there a sand bed? Maybe try a sea cucumber, they’re good at cleaning sand :)

I have a similar problem, but it's only on the rock. Sand is super clean thanks to my diamond goby. He had cyano beat in a DS 150g reef in about a week. Grew faster than any fish I've had, he came in at a little over an inch and almost sickly looking, and only a month or so later he's about 5 inches and chunky. Can't get anything to really get the gunk off the rocks though.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I have a similar problem, but it's only on the rock. Sand is super clean thanks to my diamond goby. He had cyano beat in a DS 150g reef in about a week. Grew faster than any fish I've had, he came in at a little over an inch and almost sickly looking, and only a month or so later he's about 5 inches and chunky. Can't get anything to really get the gunk off the rocks though.

I you get detritus buildup on the rock that indicates a dead spot in your flow. Imo its ok and normal to have a few dead spots, especially at the back of the tank. You may need to add an additional wave maker or upgrade your return pumps, random flow nozzles can help too.

 

[vetteguy53081]

What's the best thing you've had eat Detritus from experience? Looking to add a few things mainly to eat as much Detritus as possible

Bristleworms, spaghetti worms, sea cucumber and strawberry conchs

 

[bushdoc]

I agree with Mr Mojo Rising, nothing really eats detritus in a sense that this creature would incorporate it into their mass. Some creatures mentioned above can extract nutrients from detritus but only to a point, so the only way to remove detritus is good vacuum.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

I you get detritus buildup on the rock that indicates a dead spot in your flow. Imo its ok and normal to have a few dead spots, especially at the back of the tank. You may need to add an additional wave maker or upgrade your return pumps, random flow nozzles can help too.

Ideally that'd be great, but to hit at least one of the spots I'd need to put a powerhead on the front viewing glass pointing towards the back at an angle. And when I stir it up/blow it off the rock, it does swirl up and around the tank. I have 2 opposing gyres and 4 additional pumps currently, all running on max. But this almost dino-like detritus film comes back within hours of blowing it off. It almost looks like it congeals, or maybe makes a web-like mass partially anchored to the rocks. When it blows around it seems to stick to itself like it knows it needs to be heavy enough to sink and not get sucked into the overflow.

I don't mind having to syphon every so often, but like the OP, having a detritus feeder would be very helpful in the fight.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Ideally that'd be great, but to hit at least one of the spots I'd need to put a powerhead on the front viewing glass pointing towards the back at an angle. And when I stir it up/blow it off the rock, it does swirl up and around the tank. I have 2 opposing gyres and 4 additional pumps currently, all running on max. But this almost dino-like detritus film comes back within hours of blowing it off. It almost looks like it congeals, or maybe makes a web-like mass partially anchored to the rocks. When it blows around it seems to stick to itself like it knows it needs to be heavy enough to sink and not get sucked into the overflow.

I don't mind having to syphon every so often, but like the OP, having a detritus feeder would be very helpful in the fight.

Dosent sound like typical detritus then, could you post a pic

 

[Wandering Albatross]

Dosent sound like typical detritus then, could you post a pic

It’s a light tannish color. When I blow it off there’s a hard green crust on the rock that I’m thinking is the beginnings or coralline, but I can’t imagine this stuff isn’t choking it out or slowing its growth at least.

In some places it forms these strings or chains of gunk.

 

[exnisstech]

Do you blow your rocks off? I blow mine off a few times a week. I've found in my SPS tank bubble algae likes to grow in places where detritus collects

 

[Wandering Albatross]

Do you blow your rocks off? I blow mine off a few times a week. I've found in my SPS tank bubble algae likes to grow in places where detritus collects

I can blow these off every day, this stuff re-congeals within an hour or so. Syphon it out, it just forms a new mat. All but 2 pumps are pointed down blasting the rocks . It's better than it's been, but still would benefit if I could find something that'll eat it.

 

[exnisstech]

Maybe try an urchin? I've had very good luck with pincushions. Not sure if they'll eat what you have but in my tanks they will scrape the rock down to the white. Urchins are really the only thing I've found that will do a good Job cleaning rocks.