Good poo eaters

[Dsnakes]

The serpent stars I had were very active feeders. Devoured scraps when I fed the tank. I don’t think they touched the poo ;Vomit

Here is the kind I had.

 

[Dsnakes]

The only poo eating fish that comes to mind is Tilapia. I don’t think they’ll help much

 

[Gareth elliott]

I had nice luck with garf bag o bugs providing loads of worms. Came with a few pieces of button polyps i chucked lol.

but the ones they gave me reproduced like crazy. Odd detritus spot under my frag rack. It was nice of them to not eat the coraline that grows here lol.

but in the bag was micro stars, worms, Different pod species, sally jo rinses her corals and the stuff that comes off throws in bag with some chaeto and ships it.

 

[BloopFish]

I think in most people's tank the bristleworms will get thinned out by fishes to the point that they wouldn't be able to sufficiently control the... poop population. My crabs really like eating through detritus thats basically poop, algae, and other decaying matter. One of my decorator crabs was wearing poop as a hat. I have bristlworms in my fuge, but whenever they get in my DT my crabs just eat them up.

 

[DSC reef]

Unfortunately anything that eats poo and detritus will just create their own so it's an endless cycle. This is the con to bare bottom. High flow on the bottom or regular weekly siphoning is best IME.

 

[living_tribunal]

Gross title I know, but what is the best fish poo eater? Are there any?
In my bare bottom tank, with my heavy stocking, there are piles of fish poo collecting underneath my rockwork. It's not causing any nutrient spikes as my fuge is able to keep up with it as it decays. But I'd like to get a critter to possibly clean it up a little bit. I do siphon it out during water changes and blow it out with a turkey baster occasionally, but would still like to get something that will naturally remove it.
Thoughts?

Well you know and have one of the obvious answers.

The other answers kind of require a sand bed.

Putting bristle worms aside, I bet micro brittle stars might work in a bare bottom. They are just effective as bristles imo, potentially even more so.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

poop population.

Poopulation?

Oh, no. I think I did it again

 

[living_tribunal]

Honestly I wouldn't be completely against that lol. But I know my uncle has bristles in his tank, I'll steal a few of his

I was reading that serpent stars are poo eaters, any truth to this?

Yessir, brittle stars are like that dude sticking his arm underneath the stall asking for tp.

 

[living_tribunal]

Alright, I’ve seen enough. It’s time for the best coral poops of 2019 thread @Katrina71

Time to see who is willing to put up or shut up.

 

[LIreefguy]

I put very little sand in my bare bottom tank. Most of it got blown to the 2 corners. Believe it or not my wrasses like to sleep in it even though it’s not deep enough to cover them. But my tiger tail cucumber keeps those 2 patches clean of Detrious. Used to have to manually remove it myself. But high flow and my tiger tail helps in my tank. My tiger tail has been with my 4 years it’s over 18 inches long and even goes in between rocks keeping that area clean

 

[fermentedhiker]

Have you considered letting some coral cover the bare bottom? I saw a tank(maybe on here) where the whole bottom was covered by florida Rics. Add a powerhead to cure the dead spots and now you have a gorgeous carpet bottom instead of bare bottom.

 

[BloopFish]

I put very little sand in my bare bottom tank. Most of it got blown to the 2 corners. Believe it or not my wrasses like to sleep in it even though it’s not deep enough to cover them. But my tiger tail cucumber keeps those 2 patches clean of Detrious. Used to have to manually remove it myself. But high flow and my tiger tail helps in my tank. My tiger tail has been with my 4 years it’s over 18 inches long and even goes in between rocks keeping that area clean

What else does your tiger tail eat besides the two small patches of sand to live for so long?

 

[jda]

You are not going to to want to hear this, but nothing... Bacteria will consume some of the leftover carbon and nitrogen and other nutrients, but other than that, you will just have to siphon it out or stir it up so that it drains into a filter sock or settles into your sump out of sight.

True detritus is not worth anything to anybody... it has already been scavenged can provide no further benefit. This does not take long after the fish as growled it out. Even a cucumber will not get much from it, but they can digest the bacteria and other microfauna in the sand.

Whatever you line the bottom with, the stuff will just get trapped in between them. I once had a patch of Scrambled Egg Zoas about 24x24 inches in the bottom of one of my frag tanks. It looked nice, but if I blasted them with a powerhead or turkey baster, enough detritus would cloud up the water that you could barely see the bottom. They were just hiding the stuff. Detritus can work it's way in between and into the crevices in travertine frag tiles too.

The stuff is benign and you should get it out, but there is no hurry.

 

[BloopFish]

You are not going to to want to hear this, but nothing... Bacteria will consume some of the leftover carbon and nitrogen and other nutrients, but other than that, you will just have to siphon it out or stir it up so that it drains into a filter sock or settles into your sump out of sight.

True detritus is not worth anything to anybody... it has already been scavenged can provide no further benefit. This does not take long after the fish as growled it out. Even a cucumber will not get much from it, but they can digest the bacteria and other microfauna in the sand.

Whatever you line the bottom with, the stuff will just get trapped in between them. I once had a patch of Scrambled Egg Zoas about 24x24 inches in the bottom of one of my frag tanks. It looked nice, but if I blasted them with a powerhead or turkey baster, enough detritus would cloud up the water that you could barely see the bottom. They were just hiding the stuff. Detritus can work it's way in between and into the crevices in travertine frag tiles too.

The stuff is benign and you should get it out, but there is no hurry.

I'd say that isn't completely true. Detritus is essentially broken down organic matter and it is also thus an organic form of carbon (though not readily as usable as something like sugar I presume). They are loaded with bacteria and this many detrivores will benefit from it. I'd assume it is similar to how leaf litter and detritus works in a forest. Cellulose in wood and leaf is essentially useless to most organisms, but is readily used by bacteria as a carbon source. This makes it so organisms such as beetles can eat rotting wood - partially due to the bacteria growing on the rotting wood being a nutrient source and partially due to the bacteria in their guts being able to break down cellulose.

 

[LIreefguy]

What else does your tiger tail eat besides the two small patches of sand to live for so long?

Oh sorry the patches aren’t that small Maybe I used the wrong word. Small compared to rest of the tank The tank is a 7 foot 265 gallon tank. So the patches of sand in the corners are more like 12 -18 inches. Here is one side

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Gross title I know, but what is the best fish poo eater? Are there any?
In my bare bottom tank, with my heavy stocking, there are piles of fish poo collecting underneath my rockwork. It's not causing any nutrient spikes as my fuge is able to keep up with it as it decays. But I'd like to get a critter to possibly clean it up a little bit. I do siphon it out during water changes and blow it out with a turkey baster occasionally, but would still like to get something that will naturally remove it.
Thoughts?

OK, so after you get critters to eat the fish poop, what critters will you then get to eat the critters poop ? And so on.

I like the idea of strong display flow - to continually stir up and suspend detritus so it flows over to the sumps mechanical filtration (for those that care about detritus of course).

Or better, a Glennf internal "Power Filter".

 

[Crabs McJones]

OK, so after you get critters to eat the fish poop, what critters will you then get to eat the critters poop ? And so on.

I like the idea of strong display flow - to continually stir up and suspend detritus so it flows over to the sumps mechanical filtration (for those that care about detritus of course).

Great question. I was hoping their poo would be smaller and less noticeable lol

 

[Admann]

Well you know and have one of the obvious answers.

The other answers kind of require a sand bed.

Putting bristle worms aside, I bet micro brittle stars might work in a bare bottom. They are just effective as bristles imo, potentially even more so.

My brittle stars current surf after lights out. Pretty cool till they meet Mr. Maxspect

 

[living_tribunal]

My brittle stars current surf after lights out. Pretty cool till they meet Mr. Maxspect

Are they full size? I bet that’s a site to see. If someone who didn’t know reefing saw that they’d probably freak out.

Mine literally just chill under the rocks with their tentacles out panhandling for poop.

 

[Admann]

Are they full size? I bet that’s a site to see. If someone who didn’t know reefing saw that they’d probably freak out.

Mine literally just chill under the rocks with their tentacles out panhandling for poop.

They never get bigger than a quarter, the first time I saw it I freaked. Doesn't seem to hurt the population.