Clean up crew? Waste management...

I use MTS and then have clown loaches which keep the MTS population down. A turkey baster is also very helpful for cleaning out between rocks.

Maybe try a small school of mini-cats that will help stir things up in addition to more circulation. Raphael would work though they get a bit bigger faster than others, I like syno. petricola. Maybe add another small circ pump in the tank will help, but there will always be dead spots somewhere. Adding a pump controller to switch them on and off at alternating times will help keep the currents as random as possible, which is your goal.

bristle nose catfish work well and my haps and peacocks completly ignore my bristlenose

Dark Rose said:

I was worried about small cats being picked on by the cichlids... will have to look those up, as scientific names normally leave me clueless still.

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There are many Synodontis species, some getting larger than others, and I'm not sure if many of them have 'common' names. Some of the most common, S. Mulitpunctatus (Cuckoo cats) and S. Petricola, are very similar smaller cats that do well in groups >5 and grow very slowly. They are also found in nature along with many of the African cichlids out there. The "Upside-down cats" are usually these as well, and I can also often find "Tiger Syno" which I don't know the species to. My favorite looking fish in the genus is S. Angelicus, but I've never seen them in person and haven't seen prices in my range for them. Any of the synodontis sp. cats should work well in your situation, just make sure you get them in a group. >5 fish and they'll likely hide all the time and never see them. Larger groups will race around a lot more often.

As far as the fish you have with these cats, the firemouth when older may be mean on them, as well as certain types of haps. My peacocks and mbuna couldn't care less about the cats. Only trouble I've had is a 7"ish N. Fusco trying to swallow one of the cats and getting stuck. He hasn't made that mistake again.

Shock nobody thought of jus feeding less often, lower stock, or add another powerhead I have 2 in my 55. So adding fish is not going to help the problem jus adds more waste.

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snowman17.5 said:

Shock nobody thought of jus feeding less often, lower stock, or add another powerhead I have 2 in my 55. So adding fish is not going to help the problem jus adds more waste.

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Try reading the OP before acting so "shocked".

He said was considering additional powerheads, but was looking for alternative solutions to fixing the waste-in-dead-spot problem, including fish to stir up the waste. Feeding the fish less or lowering stock will not stop poo from building up in dead spots on the tank.

Try reading on bio loads bro adding more fish will not help how can a fish stir up something if its in a dead spot between rocks and I was tryning to help so respond to the op with help. And a powehead is your best bet and feeding less worked for me. Also OP try moving rocks around kinda a trial and error thing.

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