nast live rock

[tripleup05]

i was adjusting my powerheads earlier, and when they aimed at my live rock, brown dusty/milky stuff went ALL OVER! i mean it was nasty. apparently junk has been collecting on them for awhile. Is this normal, or is this an indication that my tank is too dirty. plus, there is this milky lookin stuff at the top of my tank. you can see some visible particles floating on top, but alot of it looks the same as when gas gets in water (except without all the colors)

 

[lion_crazz]

This is perfectly normal if you do not clean your live rock often enough. Every so often, take your live rock out of your tank and shake it in a bucket of bad water that you just previously pulled out of the aqaurium. Shake it in bad water that came from your tank so that you are not killing any of the biological life that is living on it. This will keep the detritus from settling on the live rock and causing nitrate issues.

 

[ophiura]

Taking all the LR out is not feasible in larger or more mature tanks. So you may have to look into circulation, cleaning critters and just shooting the rock with a turkey baster. But removing the rock can cause serious issues (eg disturbing the sand bed, causing ammonia spike, crushing/trapping critters, etc). It would be VERY disturbing to the tank, IMO, to remove the LR often.
As for the film on the water, do you have a skimmer? Do you have an overflow? Do you have water (returns from sump, powerhead, something) aggitating the surface of the water to break it?

 

[mudplayerx]

First, make sure you have at least 20X the volume of your tank circulating per hour. Also, it is perfectly fine to occasionally detach a powerhead and clean the rocks off with it. There are storms in the ocean all the time.

 

[monalisa]

Thanks Ophiura, I near had a coronary! First thing I thought was, so how often should I do THAT???? Whew!! :scared:
Lisa :happyfish

 

[lion_crazz]

ophiura, using a turkey baster and a powerhead is enough in tanks with a lot of live rock stacked up pretty high? It never seemed to fully do the job when I just used those two things. I am not doubting you or trying to argue whatsoever, I simply just want your opinion because you are someone whom I respect and value the opinion from. I have 90 lbs. of live rock in my 75 and it just never seems to stay clean enough unless I take it out and shake it off every 3 to 4 months. Usually I do one side of the tank one week, and then the other side the next week. Maybe I am not using a large enough powerhead? I use an AquaClear 301, which pumps out 275 gph.
My tank specs are a 75 gallon Reef Ready (wet/dry turned into a chaeto refgium), ETSS Reef Devil skimmer (rated for 150 gallons), 17X the amount of flow per hour, and I know for certain that I do not overfeed. I feed every other day, and the only real watse producing fish are a lion, puffer, and very small hawk. The other three fish I have are an lmb, diamond goby, and engineer goby. My nitrates are consistently 20 and below, and I do a 20% water change once a week. I am not complaining or saying that I am having problems with anything, but I just wanted your opinion, since I will be setting up a 210 gallon tank in two months to go in place of my current 75, and I plan on setting up the 210 with 200-250 lbs. of live rock.

 

[tripleup05]

thanks for the responces. Ophiura, nope I dont have an overflow, sump, etc. I just run a HOT Mag filter, but yes I do have a skimmer. It even has an attachment where it draws from the top of the tank, but it doesnt seem to be helping

 

[teresaq1]

When ever i mess in my tank a lot or move rock around, i hang an extra filter with filter floss to help clean up the water quickly. it seems to work pretty good.

 

[nanoreef]

iam thinking of puting a little aqua clear mini con mi tank with no inserts BUT could i add floss one and a while to hilp the water quality
How long do i leave the floss in
I dont want any spikes happining

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by lion_crazz
ophiura, using a turkey baster and a powerhead is enough in tanks with a lot of live rock stacked up pretty high?
I would say, if taking it out has never caused problems for you, then you may wish to continue it. But I can't imagine in a fully stocked reef tank, as an example, removing everything so often. It would make the hobby pure misery for me. Could just cause some sort of disaster. It is normal to have a lot of "detritus" coming from LR. I don't have pristine LR for sure. I blow stuff off now and then, but for the most part, don't mess with it too much.

 

[thejdshow]

I use my power head to blow stuff of my rock. Works gread for spot cleaning, and does a better job then the turkey baster. I have a 55 gallon tank with about 60 - 65 pounds of LR and I couldn't even imagine cleaning it all every week. I'm hardly home enough to enjoy my tank, let alone empty the rock lol.

 

[tripleup05]

well i'm just glad to know its fairly normal

 

[mudplayerx]

I have rearranged my rock like 3 times in 4 months lol. My poor critters. The last time I rearranged, I accidently placed a live rock onto one of my hermit crabs. Thank God I came back 5 hours later to look.... there he was, patiently waiting for me to take the rock off of his shell lol.

 

[ophiura]

I've killed at least one fish by removing LR - little things that swim into holes for safety

 

[kdfrosty]

Originally Posted by ophiura
I've killed at least one fish by removing LR - little things that swim into holes for safety

That's exactly how I got a bicolor blenny as a hitchhiker.