filtering question

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Frogspawn

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
486
Location
Falling Waters WV
i have a question about filtering. i have had a 30g reef up and running for about 3-4 months now. i have 35 pounds of fiji LR and a bac-pac protein skimmer and large CPR HOB refuge with 2-3 inchs of sand.

over these past months i have seen waste settling in my refuge and inside my bac-pac skimmer. i dont have any means of machainal filtration. i have had trouble with it in the past and i dont care for canister or hob filters. how can i get rid of some of this waste that's acumalating in my tank. i dont have any kinda problem with alage (knock on wood) and i do PWC's every monday 5g's i dont have many hermits or snails either. i used to have them and the hermits had a feild day with the snails and wreck havoc on my tank. right now i have about 6 hermits, 6 snails, and 2 O.clowns and millions of pods and amppods in my tank.
Any Idea's
 
timbo2 said:
Siphon it out during a water change or use a turkey baster to remove.. Best ways I have found..

Also add a clean up crew to you HOB refuge.
 
Be wary of clean up crews and drains. Make sure your drains have guards on them to keep flow from being blocked. Might not be necessary with a HOB but it has bit me twice!
 
In addition to those things, if you have the sponges for your PH's you could throw them on for a day or two. Use a turkey baster to stir all the detritus up a few times a day, so it can be trapped in the sponges.
the hermits had a feild day with the snails and wreck havoc on my tank
I don't use hermits for this reason. If you think your clean up crew is lacking, I would suggest possibly adding a small serpent star, a shrimp or two(peppermint, cleaner, etc.), and ditch the hermits for more snails. Use a few different types of snails, ex. astrea, trochus, nassarius, etc., for the best results since some tend to eat different things. My snails would actually go into my skimmer all the time, before moving it to the sump. I would still need to clean it periodically though, to prevent too much detritus from accumulating in it. No way around manual maintenance :)

I'm glad to hear everything is going smoothly for you.
 
make sure you enough empty shells for the hermits and they should leave the snails alone if they enough to eat.
 
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