CUC Poo Everywhere!!! And Diatoms!

[avery155]

My cleanup crew has been cleaning up everything except for there :pooh:. Its all over my sand and I dont know what to do. If i try to siphon it out the sand comes up too. Also I have diatoms everywhere. When I turkey baste the rock the water gets cloudy. Will this hurt my CUC or my fish when I add them? The hermits seem to love my diatoms, i just hate there :pooh: piling up everywhere, especially in the cave area that I made in my live rock.I guess I have to ride out this diatom phase, Ill keep basting and they keep coming back. I turned my skimmer on again today so maybe that will help.

My CUC currently consist of
They are 2 days old, and they all look happy and healthy!
10 small red hermits
1 massive blue hermit
2 emeralds
3 snails, 2 are stuck to a rock and one keeps trying to escape. It is about to get plucked and plopped on a rock with the other two.

 

[VAreef]

The brown diatoms will just go away on their own so need to worry there. They shouldn't hurt your CUC or any fish. Just a normal newly cycled aquarium thing. I sometimes use a powerhead to blow off rocks right before I do a water change. This makes the water real cloudy but it makes for a good water change. Can get rid of some poop that way.

 

[avery155]

So after doing some research what I thought I bought where nassarius snails are not. How deep of a sand bed do you need for a nassarius snails? I read that they will help eat the detritus. My sand bed is probably at least an inch deep in the thin areas and some areas are deeper. Its hard to tell how deep it is. It comes up to the top of the black trim on my tank. I do not know how deep that is because my stand has a lip around it that covers that trim. I do have eggcrate under my sand for my rocks to sit on. Is this going to be a problem. Do they have to bury themselves fully?

 

[wontonflip]

My tanks have always just had 1" or so sand bed. My nassarius were fine.