How To Clean Up Detritus

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How To Clean Up Detritus

It happens in all aquariums. Detritus -- in the form of fish feces, uneaten food, dead or dying plant material, etc. -- settles on your rocks and substrate.

For the substrate -- which usually consists of sand, dolomite or store-bought commercial gravel -- a lot of aquarists use a gravel filter, which churns up the substrate as water is siphoned out of the tank.

This works good and well if you are in the process of conducting a water change, but few people conduct a water change as often as they should, if at all. That leaves time for a lot of detritus to build up in the substrate, particularly if you are using an undergravel filter, which I do not.

Personally, I use a different technique for keeping my rocks and substrate clean. It is a simple and obvious solution which I use during the course of conducting my daily aquarium maintenance.

In a word, I use a good old-fashioned turkey baster to "dust off" the rocks, as well as the substrate, as needed. Once the detritus and other material is free-floating in the water, my two Penguin 330 bio-wheel filters suck it out of the tank. Sometimes I will "dust" several times during the course of a day.

If you use this simple method, just make sure that you clean any external filters as soon as they show signs of getting clogged; and in the case of external filters like the Penguin 330, make sure that you turn it off before you remove the filter media, as otherwise, a lot of the garbage will get dumped right back into your tank.

I hope that the above hint helps a few of you.

Regards,

TheFishGuy

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