Detritus building up in rocks. What does everyone do?

[extinguishfire]

So I take a turkey baster occasionally and blow my rocks trying to get all the dust out. I am having a little issue with some raised phosphates and I think this could be one of the reasons. What does everyone do if anything to blast the rocks? I wonder how much an impact would have adding alot more inverts to help clean. It just seems like this detritus comes from deeper in the rockwork.

 

[DaveJ]

@extinguishfire wrote:

LR sheds a great deal so having clean up crews or enough flow to get it into the column to be eaten by corals and the like is the best way. If needed, as i drain the tank, i will use a hose and suck that kind of thing from the rock work but usually I just blow it up into the column and let the skimmer handle it or the sandbed.

You are correct though that it could be a phosphate issue, it could also lead to nitrate problems. Hermits are good for that kind of thing, but they are hard on the snail population.

 

[Animal Mother]

I use the powerheads to stir it all back up into the water column so it gets filtered out.

 

[kwl1763]

@Animal Mother wrote:

Ditto, maxijet 1200 all over the palce just before I change the water.

I always scrape the glass, (all sides) and stir up all the crap in/on the rocks before I do a water change.

 

[BigJay]

@kwl1763 wrote:

Ditto, maxijet 1200 all over the palce just before I change the water.

I always scrape the glass, (all sides) and stir up all the crap in/on the rocks before I do a water change."]

Yep, it takes 10 minutes with an MJ to blow off all the rocks every other week. That stirs up all the crud, and it gets filtered out or sucked out with the gravel vacuum during a water change.

PS: Blasting the rocks with a powerhead is also the best way to inadvertently break off pieces of prized coral while you're doing it. :sad: