Fish/Invert waste? clean up crew?

[AmatuerAuer]

Hi,

I have 4 blue leg hermits and they are poo-ing up a storm.

Is there an advisable snail/critter to help clean and/or simply dust up the substrate to get the crap (literally) in the water column so it can be picked up by the skimmer and sump?

I realize there likely isn't an organism that eats poo, it would be more of a mechanical process that would break it apart/down for faster biological filtration.

I vacuumed my gravel when I had a Fresh water tank but don't believe you can vacuum sugar fine sand. Would it not just get sucked up with the water (bc it isn't heavy enough to settle out of the solution within the siphon).

Thank you!

 

[Humblefish]

Some snails/hermits will consume detritus, but those poop... which just leads to more detritus. IME; serpent/brittle starfish do a pretty good job of eating detritus, but those will sometimes knock over corals frags. If you have a healthy pod population, that helps too.

But when it's all said & done, manual removal of at least some detritus is inevitable. You can either suck it out using airline tubing, or have enough flow so that it blows it off the sand/rocks and into your overflow. You will then have to use filter socks (which need to be cleaned/replaced often) or the detritus will just end up in the sump.

 

[Mike J.]

IMO you are concerned about a trivial thing. A little poo from hermit crabs? A tank with a good nitrogen cycle should be able to handle even the death of a large animal. The poo will naturally enter the water where the skimmer can fractionate it.

 

[AmatuerAuer]

Mike - It is not about the effect on the nitrogen cycle, I test the levels regularly. The tank is relatively new (a little over a month) and I am just letting it run while I stack my pennies to get my 120 set up. Its a question of aesthetic, the detritus is sitting on top of the sand. I have two power heads pointing in opposing directions so perhaps I will adjust their angle/placement to better 'sweep' the bottom of the tank.

I just notice that many other tanks do not seem to have this amount of debris stagnant on the sand bed

This is a question of CUC selection as much as mechanical filtration.

Regardless - Thanks for your input.