Getting Rid of Excessive Ditriss in 29 Gal Bio Cube

[aprillynd]

How do I get rid of excessive ditriss in a 29 Gallon Bio cube without having to use a siphon? I was thinking of using something natural...like an animal or something, but I wasn't sure what to use. If it comes down to using a siphon than I guess I'll have to.

The problem with the Bio cubes is that they don't have very good filtration when you have a lot of items in the tank. I have 4 fish & 2 crabs. One crab is an emerald crab and the other was toted to be an emerald crab but it grew up into a big black monster crab about 1 1/2 inches big. I keep a reef tank and I clean the tank every week--regular maintenance. I just can't figure out how to get rid of the crap without having to use a siphon. Is there any way other than using a siphon? I ask because I have a sand bed and I'm afraid of sucking up the sand.

[CarmieJo]

I siphon. In general if you try to siphon it right off the sand you will surely pick up some of the sand but you will get most of the detritus. If you blow it off the sand and into the water column you will not pick up sand but you will not get as much of it.

Now for the questions... I am concerned that it sounds like you are seeing a significant detritus buildup. How deep is the sandbed? How much flow is in the tank? How are you filtering it? How much LR do you have in the tank? What kind of fish do you have and how long are they? Also if you are seeing detritus buildup in the tank you may also have it in the sump compartments and this would need to be siphoned too.

[ilovemyreef84]

i have a 30 gal tank for almost 3 years and it is definatley a struggle to keep the sand clean, i hate dirty sand and i hate dirty glass, without seeing a pic i would say you have 1 of a few things,

cyno bacteria
over feeding, not enough clean up crew
not enough sand sifting creatures

not sure how much sand you have but i have about 65 pounds of live sand and its about 5 inches deep, i do atleast 1 5 gallon water change a week and i always mix the sand up a little bit to syphon the particles that float, i dont actually syphon the sand, just mix it up

it also sounds like you may be overfeeding, you must be very carefull of your feeding in such an enclosed enviroment especially if you have corals an anemones, they alone put off a lot of waiste besides the fish

whatever seems to be your problem, i would definatley put a close eye on how much your feeding, make sure your doing your weekly water changes, monitor your ph an alkalinity daily, when your ph drops it creates a more stable enviroment for cyno an bad algae, always remember the lower the ph the higher nitrogen uptake accures by unwanted algaes, the more nitrogen uptake, the faster the algae grows, and also look into a sand sifter star, he has worked wonders on my sand bed, constantly moving through the sand

im no expert but ive had my experiences with small tanks and i know what its like, ive found the only way is to enjoy tank maintnence, if you dont like doing it, it wont get done like it should

i hope i was of help to you

[PhotoJohn]

All of those are good ideas. You may also want to get some bristle worms. They can "sting" sort of but are great at eating anthing