Stirring up detritus for SPS food.

jda · Jul 3, 2018

That is not really true. The detritus has been stripped of any viable nutrition when it gets into the sand and is a long way from fish poop.

Mr.Brightside · Jul 3, 2018

I've always done it but more to help with removal than to feed corals. I also don't believe in feeding "marine snow" to our reef tanks, which is basically detritus, because the inverts that feed on that sort of organic matter isn't kept in typical reef tanks anyway.

Bmasculine · Jul 3, 2018

I do it but my tank is B.B. so I’m not stirring up sand or anything but my coral do seem to like it.

chaoticreefer · Jul 3, 2018

I have been stirring my bed for past few months I have seen no ill effects. Actually, tank is doing much better. The worms population in the sand has increased, not decreased even when they get kick up and go flying. Obviously, it wouldn't be a smart move to shift a deep sand bed, but shallow beds, I think it has some positive effects. My corals are looking better and I am not fighting as much algae.

But...I should mention when I do the shifting, I run a MJ with a plastic water bottle cut in half and filled with filter floss. I have to change the filter floss 3-4 times because it gets plugged up. After couple hours I than do a WC.

I use two child plastic rakes (ones kids use for a day at the beach to play in the sand) to shift my sand, A larger one and a small one.

DragoJustin · Jul 3, 2018

reefwiser said:
One must be careful stirring anything up. I use a canister filter used to vacuum out my aquariums. I also use a DE filter also to keep the water column clean when does this. Cleaning is not a bad thing you just need to be cautious when doing it. Thru the years I have seen so many people crash their tank after simple water changes and stirring up the sand bed and having done it my self. I had to learn to be very careful when doing tank maintenance going forward.

I think that your main issue with tank crashes is that you don’t frequently stir up the sand bad or detritus enough because over a long period of time it can build up and once released all of that excess detritus, that had been built up, rapidly ruins the water quality and causes spikes in nitrates and that is what I believe is the main cause of your tank crash experiences.

PranK · Jul 3, 2018

I am of the opinion that if there is anything to stir up at all then maybe flow is on the low side? Whenever I glue something down in my tank I wave my hand over the location a few times to make sure nothing is there and usually all I stir up is heavier things like grains of sand.

But, I am now not skimming and instead have a large refugium. Considering the bacteria and pods in my 'fuge I would never stir it up. I don't want to risk lowering the number of critters or bacteria in the fuge at all considering it is my main filtration.

I do blast my weir/overflow once a week with a powerhead, it stirs up a lot of crap but I haven't seen any change in corals after doing so.

terri_ann · Jul 4, 2018

PranK said:
I am of the opinion that if there is anything to stir up at all then maybe flow is on the low side? Whenever I glue something down in my tank I wave my hand over the location a few times to make sure nothing is there and usually all I stir up is heavier things like grains of sand.

But, I am now not skimming and instead have a large refugium. Considering the bacteria and pods in my 'fuge I would never stir it up. I don't want to risk lowering the number of critters or bacteria in the fuge at all considering it is my main filtration.

I do blast my weir/overflow once a week with a powerhead, it stirs up a lot of crap but I haven't seen any change in corals after doing so.

Placement of powerheads as well as amount of flow would have to be perfect IMO to not have anything settle. IMO, probably unrealistic[emoji6]

PranK · Jul 4, 2018

terri_ann said:
Placement of powerheads as well as amount of flow would have to be perfect IMO to not have anything settle. IMO, probably unrealistic[emoji6]

Perhaps my army of hermits is to be congratulated then.

JasPR · Jul 4, 2018

the hobby is great but the common thread I have seen since my entry into the marine hobby in 1978 is that we tend to try and be experts and that often means were get so far into the weeds and so focused on details of scientific fact ( I think this is why personalities like engineers so love reef keeping) that we loose the perspective of the forest due to the obsession on the tree. If we come to embrace the idea of an ocean ecosystem creating life so as to exploit every available molecule of organic material we quickly realize that the species we keep feed on many things -- bacteria, organics and material broken down in decay. Decay is always associated with bacteria ( heterotrophic species) so stirring up or baster blasting rock will put many forms of 'food' into the water column. I never saw better results than when I had a red flat worm explosion and blasting rocks with a baster put red specks free floating everywhere-- the springerii grew like weeds and the anemone had a blast! In the end-- RESULTS are more valid than theory

reefwiser · Jul 4, 2018

DragoJustin said:
I think that your main issue with tank crashes is that you don’t frequently stir up the sand bad or detritus enough because over a long period of time it can build up and once released all of that excess detritus, that had been built up, rapidly ruins the water quality and causes spikes in nitrates and that is what I believe is the main cause of your tank crash experiences.

Not in my case this time it came about when a bottom vac bag came off in the tank. That I use every two days. [emoji3]
Sadly I a clean freak so times. I have now changed to external system to stop this happening in the future. Detritus is not food. Thou some seem to think it is such by the responses.
[emoji3]

danschoenherr · Jul 4, 2018

I have not noticed a feeding response either when basting rocks. Prior to my water change, I will put a filter sock in the sump, as I do not normally run them, and then use a turkey baster to blow off the rocks, stir up my fuge a little (to move some pods up to the DT for my wrasses) and stir up about 1/4 of my shallow sand bed. ( I increase my powerhead speeds to keep the solids suspended and hopefully make it down to the filter sock) I also believe a majority of the detritus is inert matter that plug up the rocks and sand.

Wh00pS32 · Jul 6, 2018

I've been stirring sandbeds twice a week since i started reefkeeping back in 2001, partly to not get a bad detrius build up in the first place (i start as soon as there is livestock in any tank i own) and partly to feed coral, i get a large feeding response from all my LPS (i dont keep SPS) and i do believe it is beneficial to the corals i keep.
It works well for me and i have never had a tank crash.

DEWreefing · Jun 13, 2019

I run a bare bottom tank I have 2 jabao pp20 on the back corners to clean everything under the rocks that accumulate. I do get feeding responses out of the corals when do so for 10 mins per every other day. That is when I dump in my benereef food for corals.

Daniel@R2R · Jun 13, 2019

DEWreefing said:
I run a bare bottom tank I have 2 jabao pp20 on the back corners to clean everything under the rocks that accumulate. I do get feeding responses out of the corals when do so for 10 mins per every other day. That is when I dump in my benereef food for corals.

Thanks for bumping this up! This is a cool discussion!

DEWreefing · Jun 13, 2019

Never had issues with coral loss

ScottR · Feb 18, 2020

I was going to post a thread as I had read in a book once about this. Decided to google it first. Reviving a dead thread but current input is welcomed. I read that it should be done at night as SPS are in feeding mode then - when the little things in the ocean tend to come out more. Anyone do this at night? I tend to blow my rocks off during the day because of my own schedule. Wondering if there’s any evidence of this, anecdotal or not.

Viking_Reefing · Feb 18, 2020

reefwiser said:
I wouldn't do this in fact I have found that it can cause a tank wipe out. You can stir up bacteria that will kill the corals. Found this out years ago when I tried this method. Now I vaccum the bottom and use coral foods. Cost me too much in coral loss to do this.

I guess that depends. Stirring up a sand bed that has been sitting unattended for years could definitely cause some horrendous problems but if it’s continually maintained/stirred that won’t be a problem.

Sallstrom · Feb 18, 2020

ScottR said:
I was going to post a thread as I had read in a book once about this. Decided to google it first. Reviving a dead thread but current input is welcomed. I read that it should be done at night as SPS are in feeding mode then - when the little things in the ocean tend to come out more. Anyone do this at night? I tend to blow my rocks off during the day because of my own schedule. Wondering if there’s any evidence of this, anecdotal or not.

That's probably true for the ocean. Fish that eat polyps are grazing in day time, that's another thing making polyp extension more common at night on a reef.
In a reef tank you usually don't have those fish and can "practice" your corals to eat at certain times a day. So if you feed same time every day they will adapt to that and be ready for food at that time.

Paul B · Feb 18, 2020

I have been doing that for about fifty years with one of these or my diatom filter. No problems yet but I think at about fifty one years problems may start.