Detritus. How do you deal with it?

[>:(]

Ok, so I'm having an issue with detritus in my 55 gallon tank. The thing is I have black slate with gravel in there, it looks super nice and gives my rubbernose plec a nice hiding spot. It's a real problem when it comes to the weekly gravel vacuum, though. I get detritus in all kinds of hard to reach spots and it usually gets stirred up by the fish later. It's a pain to remove all the slate, and I don't want to upset the fish or the BB. I've seen some spotless tanks here with gravel and slate so, I know it's possible to keep it clean.

Do you guys always take out all the slate and then put it back or is there some trick to it? Would an UGF help at all? I picked up a cheap one for $9 the other day and I'm going to put it in after finals are over, but I'd like some opinions, first.

 

[>:(]

Ok, ok so I take it all out, then.

 

[id10t]

I actually played with my layout and found that with my rocks a certain way and my filter flow another, all my really nasty stuff collects in one corner... which has no rocks, etc. around it. So in my first few moments of vacuuming I've got 80% of what was in the tank...

But, once every 3 months or so I'll do a really hard core cleaning everywhere...

 

[>:(]

I see. I guess I'll just have to move things around and see what works. Tomorrow's the last day of this semester, so I'll have time.

I have noticed that the side of my tank where the ac 110 is has very little buildup while the side with the penguin 200 has lots.

 

[Pufferpunk]

How does your nitrate test out? You could get aqa powehead pointed towards where the detrious builds up, to get it out into the water column.

 

[>:(]

How does your nitrate test out? You could get aqa powehead pointed towards where the detrious builds up, to get it out into the water column.

That's the thing, they're really low, and usually don't even get to 10 by the time I do my water change. I don't know what it is building up down there, but it doesn't look like food or feces. Could be plant matter, but I would think that would adversely affect parameters as well.

 

[MATTHEWS]

Probably always have to move your slate around, I move my rocks out of the tank when I vacuum. Between my vacuuming of the gravel my Giraffe catfish does a good job of shoveling through it and stirring things around to either go into the topskimming corner box of the wet dry filter, or get sucked into the Ehiem. The Giraffe cat is like a big hoover vacuum with wiskers. He can suck down into the gravel about 4 to 5 inches and continuously shovel it through his gills stirring things up big time!

 

[Fish Eat Fish]

I see. I guess I'll just have to move things around and see what works. Tomorrow's the last day of this semester, so I'll have time.

I have noticed that the side of my tank where the ac 110 is has very little buildup while the side with the penguin 200 has lots.

Thats because ACs are powerhouses