Clean up crew?

[KTpoopenstein]

Is there anything (other than vacuuming) that will clean up all of the poop my shrimp and snails are leaving around my tank? I love watching both of them, but they're making a mess!

 

[azmodan]

Unfortunately nothing cleans up waste except for good old fashioned vacuuming. I've also found that increasing flow also helps keep waste from settling, and plants typically like a gentle sway.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Boo. That's what I was afraid of. I've already got a pretty good current, but I could increase it a bit. My tank is tall and narrow (12x12x24 LxWxH) so even though there's a pretty good flow, it would take a deluge to really get it going down at the bottom.

 

[azmodan]

Yeah, tall and narrow tanks can be a little tricky in that regard. I've had success using a Hydor Koralia 240 in smaller tanks to increase flow, but aside from that maybe more frequent vac sessions are the only way to go .

 

[Camescu]

A powerhead low down might help with the flow.

How planted is your tank? Mine is heavily planted and my nitrates never seem to get above 5ppm. And that is with weekly 25% WC and no gravel vac.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Not super highly planted because I have really low light (<1 watt/gal) but I've got a good sized clump of swords and a bunch of stems of wisteria along with java fern and moss. This is from a while ago...my lights are still off for another hour so I can't really take a current pic. the wisteria is almost to the top now.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

As it is, my nitrates are only just barely detectable...always the lowest reading on the API card, and admittedly I'm pretty lax about water changes. It's been about 2 weeks since my last one.

 

[Camescu]

Sounds like the plants are taking up the nutrients then. I'm no expert mind. Water changes still important but perhaps the invert poo isn't something to worry about.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Yeah I'm not so much concerned about the water quality as it seems to be kept well in check between the BB and plants...it just looks a mess with little turds all over the gravel!

 

[Camescu]

Haha. Carpet with moss balls should disguise it

That's what I'm aiming towards (little by little each payday)

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Yeah maybe that's the way to go! I have one but it always seems to end up under the driftwood. I wish I had enough light to do a carpet of some sort of small plant like dwarf hair grass or baby tears or something similar but my lighting situation won't really allow for that. I need to go to petsmart today to get some stuff for our dogs so I'll see what they have in the line of moss balls.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Did a major vacuum and WC this afternoon. Checked the water parameters before I did it...ammonia & nitrite were both 0 and nitrate between 0-5ppm. The amount of crap I vacuumed up always grosses me out! Also did a little aquascaping and added another couple bunches of amazon swords and anubias nana so lots of junk has been kicked up into the water, but my shrimp are loving it! So much food!! I got a good look at a few of my adults and I'm going to have lots more babies soon. 3 females fat with eggs. I also turned up the flow on my filter so hopefully that will help filter out some of the fine junk floating around right now and help keep things a little cleaner. Petsmart only had large moss balls at $7.99 each so I ordered a lot off of eBay...10 (2-3 cm) for $23(including shipping). I saw another lot of larger ones for about the same price that I might order later but I want to see how I like this group when they come in.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

My moss balls arrived today, and came with an extra! They're all still floating (I've squeezed them to get out excess air) but they've been light deprived for a couple of weeks (shipped from the UK to Louisiana) so they may just be desperate for a little light! The shrimp didn't take long to find them though!