where does the poop go?

[cherrybarbbaby]

Ok, I've had my sand tank for about 4 months now and I see a little poop on the surface but when I go to get my cleaner its gone?

The sand is black and the poop is brownish so Its not invisible.

Even when I stir the stand up to prevent gas build up, I just see a little.

My cories eat, so I know they are pooping but where does all the poop go? Is this bad?

I wanna make sure that I'm not doing something wrong because I want to add sand to my 20g.

So, any suggestions???

 

[modernhamlet]

What's your tank circulation like? How about the filtration?

If you have plenty of circulation in the tank (submersible powerheads are great for this), detrius like poop isn't going to be able to settle on the bottom. It's going to stay in the water and eventually be sucked into the filter where it can be caught by the media. Obviously a stronger filter is going to pull more of this water through and remove more waste.

The other option is it's finding a convenient out of the way spot to deposit itself. Decorations like rocks, wood, etc. tend to get lots of gunk under them. If your tank isn't keeping itself as clean as you'd like, even with standard maintenance, then every three months do a more thorough tank cleaning. Remove decorations and do a double water change with lots of sand stirring.

On second thought, do that anyway. It's good for the tank and fish. They'll love you for it...

Hope that helps...

 

[lizard]

I noticed the same thing with my tank, once I put sand in it. I find a little fishy poo in the plants and a little gets stirred up, but not much. I'd imagine some gets sucked up into the filter. Perhaps it breaks down more quickly on the sand then it does when it falls in the gravel? I don't really know

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[cherrybarbbaby]

maybe the filter is sucking it up , never thought about that!
I will also move my plants around more as well.

THanks!

 

[Ben]

ym aeneaus corys eat the poop off my sand

 

[FishDan]

I'd agree with the above statements for the most part. Either the waste is being sucked into the filter or it is being "trapped" behind, around or under some decoration or another. Or a combination of the two. The poop won't "break down" faster with a sand substrate vs gravel because the substrate type has nothing to do with this process. I noticed a similar situation with my tank, but then I found that a large amount of poop was behind and under my large piece of driftwood. This was because the circulation in the tank created a dead spot where the waste would go, any that is, that didn't get sucked up by the filter. I've since rearranged the tank a bit and improved circulation to prevent a problem in the future.

\Dan

 

[lizard]

The poop won't "break down" faster with a sand substrate vs gravel because the substrate type has nothing to do with this process.

I didn't figure the substrate itself had anything to do with it, but thought maybe because the poo didn't really fall down in between the sand grains like it does in the gravel that that could have affected it - like it gets more waterflow or more oxygen or something. Just a thought I had....

I hadn't considered the 'dead spots' thing. Good point

Pamela
aka married Lizard