how do you clean debris from substrate???

blitz99

blitz99

Member
with my rocks and my tank being tall i am having a heck of a time cleaning the substrate.. it's the aragalive reef sand mix.. its not "sandy" but its far smaller than crushed coral..
i moved rocks over and over this week and debris came off them to the substrate... i cant reach my vac into a lot of the crevices...
 
lefty

lefty

Active Member
How's your cleanup crew? Perhaps if you invested in a few more inverts, they would take care of the debris. Also, make sure you're not overfeeding your fish--sometimes that will cause a build up of uneaten food. :)
-lefty
 
blitz99

blitz99

Member
i have 20-30 blue legged hermits and 5 snails... margarita snails i believe and a porcelain crab ( i think he's still there)
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Once a month or so, or when ever you like, blow your rocks off. Stick a hose on your powerhead output and then take the hose and point it at your rocks and in the crevices. This will blow the detritus right out. You may find that you point your hose at one hole and you will see 3, 4 or more cloudy plumes come out other holes that are conected.
If you have never done this then I recommend first having some clean filter floss or new filter cartridges going. Then try to make sure that you have plenty of flow going through the aquarium, then run a fresh batch of carbon and have active protien skimming going on.
Blow the rocks clean, it makes for a cleaner enviroment.
 
nacl-man

nacl-man

Member

Originally posted by Thomas712
Once a month or so, or when ever you like, blow your rocks off. Stick a hose on your powerhead output and then take the hose and point it at your rocks and in the crevices. This will blow the detritus right out.
That is a great tip! Learn something new every day... and to think i've been using a turkey baster all this time when I could have been doing something with MUCH more power... muhahahahaha.
Cheers!
 
T

thomas712

Guest

Originally posted by Skrimpz
Can you gravel vac / siphon sand? doesn't it all get sucked up?
You never want to syphon your sand, at least not like you did with crushed coral. In stead you want to have plenty of water flow going in the aquarium, at least a 10X turnover rate, 15x is nice. This will keep the detritus in suspention in the water column and help the mechanical filtration collect it.
 
blitz99

blitz99

Member
i'll give that a go thomas... sounds like it would work..
could i also place a powerhead LOW in the tank to sweep stuff back up when it falls?
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Sure you can place a powerhead low in the aquarium to help keep things flowing well. Just make sure that it is absolutly secure so that it will never fall into the substrate.
Thomas
7800
 
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