Question: Tank detritus

[MearWolf]

*Sorry for the spelling mistake. Obviously I meant TANK*

Hi, I'm getting rapid build up of tank detritus.

The amount pictured built up overnight. It's lighter in colour than my Axy's faeces so I know it's not all excrement.

Is it bacterial colonies forming?

The tank is cycling as I had to restart without substrate because of not being able to clean this build up out of the sand.

 

[Morrison]

Re: Dank detritus

When I have that in my tank it's mostly a combination of plant goo, pieces of forgotten poop and other eww-ness. I always vacuum it out because I hate that stuff. Lol.

 

[MearWolf]

Re: Dank detritus

I'm just hoping the load gets lessened when the tank is properly cycled

 

[Azhael]

Re: Dank detritus

That´s the resulting debris that forms after organic matter (dead plants, feces, leftover foods...) is processed by both bacteria and microorganisms like Cyclops. I personally like it in my tanks, it provides shelter for larvae and a higher abundance of food for them too.
The point, though, is that it´s not a problem. My healthiest tanks have a layer of it covering the bottom about a centimetre high xD What you have in those pictures is barely worthy of raising an eyebrow. You can vacuum it if you like, but you don´t have to, it´s not an issue.

 

[wandering]

My little uncycled tanks seem to collect this. I syphon it or use the turkey baster on it because I am not cycling (although they have been in these tanks for a few months and do have the odd mossy rock as well as plants). I have a clump of Java moss floating in each tank and there is always a collection of unidentifiable stuff under it when I come to do my water changes. I noticed that the bloodworm diet produced little fragile 'mouse dropping/charcoal' poops and the earthworm diet produces very small amounts of a very thin layer of brown sludge.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[omgitsmogo]

I have a similar problem, it was bad enough that whenever my axi took off debris goes flying... I'm hoping that adding sand as a substrate will mask it a little and i'll clean it with my gravel cleaner weekly