Cleanup crew

[Ryanst]

Originally Posted by Myka

Most critters in a clean up crew won't devour detritus; instead eating leftover fish food or algae. Most detrivores live within the sandbed, so would not be introduced into a bare bottom reef. These include peanut worms, spaghetti worms, pods, bristleworms. Cerith snails are the only shelled animal I can think of that is a detrivore, but they also need a sandbed. With a barebottom tank your best plan of attack is to use powerheads close to the bottom of the tank so that detritus is not able to settle in the tank and is instead flushed to the sump where mechanical filters such as filter pads, filter socks, and/or a protein skimmer can remove it.

The problem isn't it settling on the bottom of the tank it's al the little holes in the live rock getting full of it. It is a big tank so to have to suck stuff out of most of the little holes in the live rock is a big pain.

Maybe I should just add sand to my tank so I can get some different detrivores in there.