Are you cleaning these in your aquarium and should you be?

[KrisReef]

When I set up my tank I planned to have the current sweep the dirt out into the overflow and socks.i swam a fish to death before I realized the difficulties with that approach.
I run a bare bottom tank but still collecting a 1/2 cup of sand during water changes (estimate amount every 3 months).
I try not to stir it up because I’ve observed negative coral health response followed rock blowing dust events.
No one blows my rocks anymore. I do have a powerhead with variable flow workings the dirt off the rock work.

 

[Monkeytank]

I randomly use a baster to blast them off or try to blast underneath the ones on shelf rocks. I think I'll make one of the pumps on a stick like I've seen some others post on here. I've got a 31 inch deep tank, so the extra reach is needed.

 

[Paul B]

What about artificial rocks that are on the market to replace the real stuff? Those aren’t very porus to begin with

I don't think you would have to blow anything out of an artificial rock or know why anyone would use them.

What do you do? Swap rocks?

No, I do what I posted I do. I make a power washer and aim it at any pores or holes I can see in the rock. Tons of stuff comes out from all over the place. Those pores need to be cleaned so bacteria can do what we pay them to do.

 

[Hemmdog]

I used to blow it off with a turkey baster. I also used to have a "surge mode" programmed into my Apex. Once an hour the WAVs would go at 100% for 1 minute. I did this 24 times a day.

However, since I started dosing Vibrant and NoPox, I find I don't need to do it any more! Everything is incredibly clean!!

+1

 

[laguest]

At 8:00 PM every night my 2 x MP10's go into Nutrient Transport Mode for 20 min. At the same time a reminder on my phone goes off, if I am not busy I use a turkey baster to blow the stuff off the rocks into the water.

 

[Cristy17]

Looks like the kind of 1100 GPH bilge pump I have for my Gold Cube for gold prospecting - heavily modified of course. $15 on Amazon for the pump, but the magic is in his modifications. Great idea.

Yes I believe you are correct. It is a bilge pump.

 

[LC8Sumi]

I don't think you would have to blow anything out of an artificial rock or know why anyone would use them.

Because normal rock have been banned (in europe at least)

 

[MnFish1]

Inspired by a post yesterday I thought this would make a good discussion today! So what are we talking about here? ROCKS!! Should you, could you, would you clean your aquascape? If so, how the heck? Well by blowing off the detritus with some sort of device as simple as a turkey baster. So let me ask you this.

1. Are you cleaning your rocks, your aquascape by blowing off the settled gunk or detritus?

2. How do you clean your ROCK and what method works best for you?

image via @Copedog

I put in clean filter socks
Put on gloves
Increase the flow in the tank to max
and using my gloved hands blow water forcefully over the rocks - in short order all of the 'detritus is in the socks - then they are changed

 

[Paul B]

Because normal rock have been banned (in europe at least)

Really! I didn't know that.

 

[ORReefer]

When I set up my tank I planned to have the current sweep the dirt out into the overflow and socks.i swam a fish to death before I realized the difficulties with that approach.
I run a bare bottom tank but still collecting a 1/2 cup of sand during water changes (estimate amount every 3 months).
I try not to stir it up because I’ve observed negative coral health response followed rock blowing dust events.
No one blows my rocks anymore. I do have a powerhead with variable flow workings the dirt off the rock work.

I understand your concern about negative affects of dust on corals. This is why I don't do it on a regular basis. However, when it's been a relatively long time since I've done it I notice negative effects on my corals. As you mentioned in the quoted post there's only so much follow you can have before it starts to negatively impact your corals and/or fish (referencing the "swim to death" comment). I too have observed that my corals seem stressed during the dusting with my hand or a powerhead. However, after everything settles down for a while both fish and especially corals seem happier. Fish move around and probe the tank more. Corals seem to be more full with better polyp extension and color. As stated in the other comment about typhoons, disruption is a natural part of sea life.
That being said, typhoons don't occur every day/week in nature. I think the best approach is to assess your situation. If you get lots of build up in a short period of time you should reevaluate your tanks flow, feeding/bioload, cleanup crew, etc.
In our tank I kept noticing quite a bit of detritus and unwanted algae growth. First we tried lowering feeding a little. Those fish look so cute and hungry all the time it's hard not the think you're starving them. We also added Vibrant to our routine and the two things started the process of lowering the amount of algae. Next, I started plucking algae (not my favorite task). However, after many weeks algae still holds on in some areas of the tank. Now we've added another powerhead. Algae is receding further and we'll see what that looks like in several more weeks.

 

[drblakjak55]

The cure for GHA and Bryopsis is manual removal and turkey basting the soil that grows in the rock cracks to feed these algae. Every three days til gone. One month. No meds. No Mg.
Now turkey baste weekly. 20% water change monthly. Dosing nothing.

 

[K7BMG]

Yes I use a small power head and blow off the rocks.
I changed my method as I discovered that there are still areas of detritus build up under and around some of the rock areas. Blowing things off first as we all know creates a huge cloud in the tank.

So I changed things up, I start by carefully syphoning the areas of detritus buildup around and on the rocks first.

Then when I use the power head to blow off the rock surface, the detritus around and under the rock is not there to spread.

I have found this method removes more detritus build up overall and produce a better end result. With about the same amount of time and effort.
My tank is never as cloudy this way and clears up in half the time.

YMMV.

 

[Allan3]

A few times a week I blow off the Rocks & Blow the sand with a Turkey Baster. Also For about 45min each day my Tank gets Full (approx. 14k gph) alternating power from all the powerheads to really get everything down the drain & into Filter Socks.

 

[WVNed]

if you have enough flow and a good clean up crew you don't need to do this stuff. Yes I have done it in the past.

How do you reconcile "keep your hands out of the tank" with taking a toothbrush to the rocks?

 

[Gino Rodriguez]

Inspired by a post yesterday I thought this would make a good discussion today! So what are we talking about here? ROCKS!! Should you, could you, would you clean your aquascape? If so, how the heck? Well by blowing off the detritus with some sort of device as simple as a turkey baster. So let me ask you this.

1. Are you cleaning your rocks, your aquascape by blowing off the settled gunk or detritus?

2. How do you clean your ROCK and what method works best for you?

image via @Copedog

Baste the rocks 1-3 times a day occasionally stiff bristle brush the rocks pre water change

 

[Hermie]

I have 2 pincushion urchins in a 23 gallon display tank... they literally scrape the topmost layer of rock off and consume it down to white rock (calcified limestone?).

So while "I" don't clean the rock daily, the pincushion urchins are working 24/7 to scrape the rock down (when they aren't on the glass, that is).

What I do, every few months or weeks (depending), I will cut the turf/hair algae off the rock and remove it since the urchins don't touch that stuff. Occassionally I will brush the rock in spots but I stopped doing that in the past 6 months because I don't want to irritate any corals, fish or inverts that may be in the path of the "dust" that comes off the rock.

Am I happy with my routine right now? Not entirely. I am still planning to add more snails (specifically 4 astrea snails that are in my QT currently) who I hope will keep more of the rock clean. The only issue with them right now is that the QT has a lot of flat worms so I will have to "scrub" the snails shells before I place them in the DT, so it will be a little bit of an undertaking setting up the transfer/acclimation containers plus getting them out of the tank, I don't like yanking them.

 

[Hermie]

if you have enough flow and a good clean up crew you don't need to do this stuff. Yes I have done it in the past.

How do you reconcile "keep your hands out of the tank" with taking a toothbrush to the rocks?

Just to give my response,

I do have what I consider high flow in my tank but I don't point the powerhead at the rocks specifically because I've had a fish get stuck in the rocks and die before because the powerhead was too strong. So, even with high flow stuff still collects on the rocks, and I have to baste the rocks (easy) to be sure they aren't collecting detritus and debris.

As to the second question, simple... I always wear gloves or else I use a cpvc pipe and attach a toothbrush. (costs 5 bucks or less to make with Home Depot parts, if you don't count the CPVC glue which is the most expensive part, usually about 6 dollars a can and it doesn't last indefinitely because it dries out, so that's a pain).

 

[LC8Sumi]

But seriously guys? How do you make the floating detritus to go in the overflow?

 

[madweazl]

I do blow off the rocks occasionally when I'm pumping fresh mixed water back into the tank. With that said, not a lot of stuff comes off of the rock; likely because I have pretty strong flow (pair of MP40s at 100% in a 75g tank). Additionaly, I really dont care about detritus to begin with (about 3/4-1" deep in the sump).

 

[Damon Jensen]

I routinely rotate my rocks to help kill aiptasia. Normally only a few pounds 1/4 of my overall rock, and I have extra to compensate. I leave them out for about a month. I also wash the rocks during water changes