Tricky Cleaning

[sypherz28]

I have just recently obtained a rather large Tiger Oscar. I have come to realize also that his debris is nearly as large. The issue is it is dense and heavy causeing it to settle on the bottom, all the while illuding my filters on the side of the tank. Currently I have to pump vac his tank manually on a weekly basis, which really isnt a problem but if I can build something to automatically sweep the bottom then things would be much better.

I plan on building a sump as soon as I can find another tank to constuct my chambers from. This will take care of the water itself and the floaters from his feeder fish. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dawnmarie]

Have you considered using powerheads to move the waste toward the filter inlet ?

 

[knifegill]

Bad idea. Then your filters get clogged really fast unless you have a sump. What I do is have a gentle powerhead in one corner to create a vortex and a decoration on the spot where the poo gathers. Every few days I net out the poo. A piece of driftwood is ideal since it's already brown anyway.

Watch out for liosomadoras morrowi. Biggest turds I've ever seen compared to body size. The catfish is 6" long at the most and his turds can be 1/2" wide!

 

[sypherz28]

That is a thought. I want to finish creating my sump but I need more glass.

I like the idea of a powerhead. I could take it one step further and have a powerhead blowing through a net of sorts. I could do this to either catch it or bust it into smaller pieces that are light enough for my filter to pull in.

 

[manlyfish]

Bad idea. Then your filters get clogged really fast unless you have a sump. What I do is have a gentle powerhead in one corner to create a vortex and a decoration on the spot where the poo gathers. Every few days I net out the poo. A piece of driftwood is ideal since it's already brown anyway.

Watch out for liosomadoras morrowi. Biggest turds I've ever seen compared to body size. The catfish is 6" long at the most and his turds can be 1/2" wide!

yup i net out my fishes crap all the time

That is a thought. I want to finish creating my sump but I need more glass.

I like the idea of a powerhead. I could take it one step further and have a powerhead blowing through a net of sorts. I could do this to either catch it or bust it into smaller pieces that are light enough for my filter to pull in.

it might work but you'd have to clean eat alot

 

[m1ste2tea]

I had the same problem with oscar poop collecting behind my big decorative rock caves, and me having to vacuum them up every other day, I bought a few 18" air curtain air stones and attached a bigger air pump to it, put the air stones in between the glass and the rocks and the poop does not collect there anymore.

my only problem with this is for a 55 gallon tank, an air pump rated for 100 gallons is still does not provide the kind of pumping action that I expected, if I were to do it again id buy a pump rated for 150-200 gallons.