Too much poo on the sand

[mzhantsche]

60 gal. black sand bottem. 6" Ornate, 6" Delhezi, 5" Marbel Goby, 5" banded sailfin shark, 2" clown loach, 2" Royal pleco.

Tons of poo everywhere in the tank. it rest on top of the sand and wont sink under it. thier large fish that eat a lot.

Fulvul fx5 canister. it has a purge valve that i would love to use for my water changes but....i have to vaccume the sand once a week.

any suggestion?...fish that would clear up the poo? 110 gal comming soon so whats the best substrate? over feeding?

 

[Tom LoFaro]

Try fish that agitate the substrate, like cory catfish. People say they eat poop, which is usually not true. They sift through the sand which could agitate the wastes and then be taken up by your filter. I'm sure there are better fish for this job though.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

powerheads to agitate water column

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

point the return heads from the fx5 towards the sand to agitate it

 

[aclockworkorange]

powerheads to agitate water column

I agree. Get a koralia evolution powerhead or two and aim it down at the sand. This will make the "poo" stir up into your water column so your filter can catch it.

 

[MonsterMinis]

vaccuming the sand once a week is normal... It's habit now for me whenever i do a water change that it's done w/ a syphon and a vac job. why woudln't you want to keep your tank cleaner by paying just abit of attention when doing a water change?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Yes, proper maintenance is important, but I think some additional flow via powerhead will only help. Why not?
If your tank is properly set up, you should never see an excess of junk on your substrate. A filter can't filter mechanically if there's nothing in the water column to filter out...

 

[MonsterMinis]

FX5 is filterig a 60 gallon tank... and it's not enough?.. if the tank was underfiltered I would def agree here.. but solid waste even with power heads is likely not going to help overly much. and simply having a good wc schedule will also save the 30$ or so on powerheads which use more electricity as well...

"If your tank is properly set up, you should never see an excess of junk on your substrate."

No offense implied here but, not only is that false but misleading. Junk is what? poop? larger the fish the bigger the poop, and physically removeing it is one of the better ways to maintain good water quality. a "properly set-u tank" should have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20 or less nitrates. random debris doesn't mean anything. You can physically remove it with a net or syphon. or you can aggitate the water/sand and send it flying all around until it eventually gets sucked up. then your filter will clog all that much faster. Ultimately it will have to be physically removed either via water change/syphon or cleaning your filter.

not only are you propeoseing a quick fix, but offering a wrong assumption.

 

[philfreenode]

60 gal. black sand bottem. 6" Ornate, 6" Delhezi, 5" Marbel Goby, 5" banded sailfin shark, 2" clown loach, 2" Royal pleco.

1 clown loach on his own? those are schooling fish; it's cruel to keep them alone. banded sailfin shark.. if that is the chinese sailfin shark that's a cold water fish that can't be housed with tropical fish or you're keeping it way too hot. gets like 3 feet long.

Tons of poo everywhere in the tank. it rest on top of the sand and wont sink under it. thier large fish that eat a lot.

Be glad it stays on top of the sand if it got mixed in you'd have an ammonia or nitrate factory.

Fulvul fx5 canister. it has a purge valve that i would love to use for my water changes but....i have to vaccume the sand once a week.

Vacuuming is normal part of maintenance

any suggestion?...fish that would clear up the poo? 110 gal comming soon so whats the best substrate? over feeding?

No fish will get rid of poop. If it were my tank I would siphon the sand out and go bare bottom, run power heads to keep poop suspended so the fx5 can get it. and get rid of the banded shark

 

[aclockworkorange]

FX5 is filterig a 60 gallon tank... and it's not enough?.. if the tank was underfiltered I would def agree here.. but solid waste even with power heads is likely not going to help overly much. and simply having a good wc schedule will also save the 30$ or so on powerheads which use more electricity as well...

"If your tank is properly set up, you should never see an excess of junk on your substrate."

No offense implied here but, not only is that false but misleading. Junk is what? poop? larger the fish the bigger the poop, and physically removeing it is one of the better ways to maintain good water quality. a "properly set-u tank" should have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20 or less nitrates. random debris doesn't mean anything. You can physically remove it with a net or syphon. or you can aggitate the water/sand and send it flying all around until it eventually gets sucked up. then your filter will clog all that much faster. Ultimately it will have to be physically removed either via water change/syphon or cleaning your filter.

not only are you propeoseing a quick fix, but offering a wrong assumption.

You really think I don't know what I'm talking about? I really don't understand your attitude towards my advice.

An FX5 might be "overfiltering" on that size tank, but it doesn't matter how big your filter is if there's nothing to filter in your water column... The point of having a canister with mechanical filtration is that it will filter out "junk" (poo, or whatever) in your water column.

While it might not pick up all waste in the aquarium, a powerhead is certainly going to only benefit the filtration. I never said it was going to eliminate the problem, only aid. Siphoning is going to also be needed weekly.