Lets talk about detritus. If you feel detritus is bad, don't read this. You can still see re runs of The Brady Bunch which will be much more interesting, I think Mrs, Brady has bunions this week.
I like detritus. My tank runs on detritus (and worms) Of course I use a reverse undergravel filter. State of the art in my head. If you don't use a reverse undergravel filter your fish probably hate you, but they will get over it.
My UG filter stores a lot of detritus and that's what I want It to do. Yes, I realize much of the stuff I post is exactly opposite what everyone reads about but if you don't want to watch, or never heard of the Brady Bunch, you can still catch Kathy Lee with whomever she is hosting with today.
Detritus is organic left overs. It is composed of pod shells, bacteria, dust, and the shells of the Mysis you feed your fish. Of course it has other stuff in it like the end products of poop and whatever the Pilgrims tossed overboard.
If you feed mainly flakes and pellets your fish are most likely sick, or will be sick so you need not worry about this stuff.
I use detritus for a few things. It helps my UG filter reduce wastes by restricting the water flow through my gravel thus limiting oxygen flow and increasing anerobic bacteria. (I think anyway as I can't see the bacteria and they are not talking) but what else I use it for is to feed corals. I have a bunch of wrasses that quickly dig into my gravel. I also have mating fireclowns that constantly dig deep holes with their tails. These things create huge detritus storms that the pumps swirl around the tank. The corals were designed, probably by Briant Gumbal, to eat this stuff. It's organic and can be further broken down into it's basic chemicals by corals.
Almost every day (when I am not entertaining a Supermodel, in my head anyway) I take one of my many baster things and blow around the gravel especially in the corners producing huge "dust" clouds. I suck this up and distribute it over the corals and especially the gorgonians, some of which are very old.
Now that you have nothing else to do you can read all the threads about how bad detritus is and reverse undegravel filters. If you read about a tank that has no detritus and undergravel filter, and is older than mine, send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I will steam off the stamp so I can re use it and throw away the letter. :rolleyes:
