Removing rocks to clean

CoralBlue · Jan 28, 2020

I looked around for a bit and couldn’t find any threads related to removing rocks for cleaning the sandbed and what not.
I have liferock caribsea in a 16 gallon biocube so it takes up most of the space on the sand. Can I remove the rocks for a period of time to make sure I’m cleaning all the sand?

Sailingeric · Jan 28, 2020

It should be fine as long as it stays wet. You did not say what corals you have, if any on it. If you do have some I would stick it in some tank water in a bucket while you are cleaning it. I have pulled a few of mine out for torching a stray aiptasia or rouge kenya tree.

CoralBlue · Jan 28, 2020

Sailingeric said:
It should be fine as long as it stays wet. You did not say what corals you have, if any on it. If you do have some I would stick it in some tank water in a bucket while you are cleaning it. I have pulled a few of mine out for torching a stray aiptasia or rouge kenya tree.

No corals, just some rock with some diatoms on it at the moment. Thanks!

Sailingeric · Jan 28, 2020

Give it a good swish in the old tank water to get as much diatom as you can off

CoralBlue · Jan 28, 2020

Sailingeric said:
Give it a good swish in the old tank water to get as much diatom as you can off

Okay to use a toothbrush on it? Also, Ive heard it’s best to leave diatoms to go away on its own?

Barnabie Mejia · Jan 28, 2020

this has been done quite often. like said above you can place the rock and coral in a bucket of tank water and work the sand.... I have even done a 100% water change this way. I learned so much from @brandon429 on this topic.... shoot now I even siphon the water in to a filter sock in my sump and just clean but never remove water....

Barnabie Mejia · Jan 28, 2020

Reefnoob1287 said:
Okay to use a toothbrush on it? Also, Ive heard it’s best to leave diatoms to go away on its own?

you can but you don't want to be too aggressive on the rock with the toothbrush.... you can clean the rock "too good" and take off beneficial bacteria...

CoralBlue · Jan 28, 2020

Barnabie Mejia said:
this has been done quite often. like said above you can place the rock and coral in a bucket of tank water and work the sand.... I have even done a 100% water change this way. I learned so much from @brandon429 on this topic.... shoot now I even siphon the water in to a filter sock in my sump and just clean but never remove water....

Gotcha, definitely want to try the sump and filter sock method not sure how good it will work on a AIO tank. I’ll be light with the brush! Lol