Oh Beverly, you ain't seen nothin'! Even with only 2 fish in a 50G, restricted feeding and aggressive Vodka/MB7 dosing it is still terrifying when I do detritus export. Have you ever seen that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where they open the ark and that dude's face melts off? It's like that but with less face-melting.
Actually, ever since going the Vodka/MB7 route it's been worse. Most people are surprised by this but they're missing an important part of the bacterial cycle. Bacteria are a living, growing things. They consume nitrates, phosphates, and carbon to produce biomass (ie. grow!); they grow, reproduce and die. If you carbon dose you turbo charge this process. A lot of what we call "detritus" in our tanks is actually bacteria (unless you have one of those "poop factory" fish, it which case it's all crap). This keeps your water clean but if you don't clean your sand bed (or any other porous material in your tank for that matter) regularly, bacteria builds up (along with all of their dead soldiers). If you don't remove the dead bacteria from time to time, they just begin to decay and release the nutrients back into the water.
So yes, having BB does reduce this because there is no sand for bacteria to grow in and it's very easier to blast it out of the tank. But then again, BB is missing an important aspect of the bacterial filtration: a high surface area media on which to grow (very little of the bacteria in our systems are suspended in the water column). I agree that BB is way easier to maintain and have been tempted to go that route before but I, personally, am still attached my bacteria growing substrate. I have been wondering though what is the minimum amount of substrate I can get away with?
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Originally Posted by Reef Pilot
Also, would be interested if just the use of MB7 (without bio pellets) would reduce detritus. I know in my tank, detritus (and algae) was dramatically decreased (along with the reduction of N03 and P04) after I started using it with my bio pellets. But have never tried MB7 without the bio pellets. I might try that later after I reset my upstairs display tank.
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No, it doesn't really reduce detritus because detritus is mostly bacteria as per above. Sure, it will break down some of the solid matter but the matter that gets broken down doesn't magically disappear, it gets turned into more bacteria! (Newton says "Matter can neither be created nor destroyed". Mass balance baby!)