Cleaning the detritus off the rocks

[saskbowser]

Hi All,

I've been running my tank for about 2 months. I've done water changes but didn't think of blowing off the rocks and the next WC is next week. I've notice the last week there's a lot of little white stuff flying around my tank. Would it be okay to put some filter floss in my HOB overflow box, while I blow the detritus off the rocks? The last time I did that when I added substrate to the tank it cleaned up the cloud in about three hours, but it was before my cycle.

Will I mess anything up? Filter nutrients I need in the tank? The mass sand storm going to hurt my tank?

Thanks

 

[Mike J.]

How about a filter sock? Three hours seems like a long time for a "sand storm" to settle. Blowing off your rocks is generaly a good thing. You don't want to stir too much of your sand bed at one time. This is one reason why everyone stresses lots of flow. Once you get clams or SPS and the like you wouldn't want any of that stuff to settle on them. That white stuff your talking about is probably detritus, it's kind of a grey powder. Eliminating detritus (grows algae) and encouraging coralline algae (inhibits algae growth) is important in a new tank

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, your cool putting in some filter media if your planning on a dust storm. I wouldn't forget to take it out after a few hours though.

 

[saskbowser]

I'm having a hard time getting the right flow and not blowing my torches/frogspawn to death. I think i will blow some of the rocks off and leave my sand bed alone until the next WC. Thanks

 

[mike007]

I use a small powerhead to blow off my rock when i do my water changes. I will also run a hob filter with filter floss for about a day then i remove it. Works great and tank stays clean.