maintenance question

[sduerk]

This is just a quick question. If I want to clean the detritus off of my live sand...can I use a siphon on the top of the live sand or will that strip the live sand of the beneficial organisms that live in it?

 

[daluminum]

dont clean it. Just leave it there.. kinda an eyesore but DSB is not the prettiest thing around..

 

[thor]

no, this will suck up the bacteria you will want to get a cleaning crew and that will do the job just fine

 

[mr . salty]

A vaccume is not reccomended on a sand bed.You can aim a powerhead so it blows across the sands surface to keep stuff from settling,and a good cleanup crew will do the rest...

 

[fshhub]

do you have detrivores in your sand?
or lr?(which would probably have dets.)
they will help here, but don't vaccuum

 

[sduerk]

thanks for the advice. That is the general response from the LFS but I wanted a couple extra opinions. I am not sure what detrivores are but I assume that they are creatures that eat detritus. I have seven hermit crabs and 10 snails.

 

[fshhub]

detrivores are little critters, some are bug like, which do eat detritus, mysid shrimp, amphipods, copepods, mini brittle and micro stars, and SOME snails and crabs

 

[sduerk]

where would I acquire the amphipods, copepods, etc.?

 

[schroder_reef]

do a search online for detrivore kits and that should help ya.... Good luck..