Who blows off their live rock regularly?

[acroholic]

Wow, a lot more people do this than I thought. I will start this tonight. Might as well. When I treat with ChemiClean, I rinse the filter socks out twice a day anyways to get rid of the loose cyano coming off the rocks, so now would be a good time to get all the crud in the LR loosened up.

I am going to need to put an extension on the output of the MaxiJet, however. The tank is simply too big to reach everywhere with just the powerhead and my stubby little arm. If I come up with anything usable I will post it up. Probably put some PEX tubing on the output.

 

[snowmansnow]

<-- almost never :/

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

I used to do it on my 120g, but found that it only spread the nasties to my other rocks. With my new tank I have so many power heads pointing in every direction that nothing has a chance to settle. My apex also controls my power heads in such a way that each power head comes on at separate times and I can literally watch the leftovers get blown up and into my overflows.


Sent from my iPad using

 

[d3r3k]

Wow! With the amount of flow you have going in your tank, I wouldn't have thought anything would be settling, Dave.

 

[acroholic]

D3R3K;921163 wrote: Wow! With the amount of flow you have going in your tank, I wouldn't have thought anything would be settling, Dave.

My rock is a combination of MarcoRock Key Largo, which is very holey and porous, and Totoka. The Key Largo was dry and dead, and makes up the bases on the reef structure, and then I topped it with Totoka live rock from the 300 gallon I upgraded from. The settled stuff is/was inside the holes of the rock. Looking at it you'd never know it was there.

I took a Maxijet and put a piece of PEX tubing on the output and blew all the crevices and holes in the rock I could reach tonight, and the tank looked like a fog bank for a while, but you have to start somewhere. I'll try to hit it once a month or so.

I'm sure not all the detritus I stirred up made it to the filter socks, but with regular sessions it should help. Just takes some time, as the tank is 96"x 40" x 28".

The red cyano is almost completely gone. I'll do a 90 gallon water change after 48 hours.

 

[sinbad]

Same here - turkey baster. My blue tang loves to play with small rocks (and crabs), usually always makes a mess on the rocks and corals with sand. Drives me crazy sometimes

 

[camellia]

I have an additiction to this. Every day/night that I can I'll blow off my rocks and use a turkey baster (reef model) to blow out every hole, crevice, nook and cranny in my tank! Yes I know it's over kill and honestly I don't have "too much time on my hands", I've just got issues with knowing there is gunk in there....
I need help, lol

 

[acroholic]

Camellia;921327 wrote: I have an additiction to this. Every day/night that I can I'll blow off my rocks and use a turkey baster (reef model) to blow out every hole, crevice, nook and cranny in my tank! Yes I know it's over kill and honestly I don't have "too much time on my hands", I've just got issues with knowing there is gunk in there....
I need help, lol

Your tank is probably better off for your efforts. I'm sure a percentage of the detritus that settles on our rock is food grade for algae or whatever, so blowing off the rock is just another tool in the nutrient export arsenal, along with skimming, carbon and GFO media, filter socks, water changes, etc.

Main thing I noticed when I did my 465 is the potential to knock corals off their bases with the tubing and the powerhead. I have to be careful or I'll do a lot of accidental fragging.

I just got done with a 50 gallon water change as a follow up to the ChemiClean treatment. I'll do another after a while. Times like these make me glad I semi automated my water change setup, so it is mainly a matter of turning a couple valves to add and drain large volumes of water from the system.

 

[camellia]

Thanks Dave for not making fun of me, lol

50 gallon water changes sure would be a pain using buckets!

 

[skriz]

Why do you get cyanobacteria outbreaks every year?

 

[acroholic]

Skriz;921396 wrote: Why do you get cyanobacteria outbreaks every year?

If I knew the answer to that question I probably wouldn't be having a cyano outbreak every year, hehehe!

But seriously, my best guess is it comes in with a new coral addition or something similar. I think I had it in a very small spot or two before it started to spread some, but the combination of me changing out my year old Radium halide bulbs, and the addition of 660 watts of supplemental VHO Super Actinic to the tank probably gave it a bit more light to grow.

It wasn't a bad case to start with, but for me it is just easier to hit it with ChemiClean when I see it and be done with it.

 

[willie1983]

I decided to give it a try, it worked good but pissed my clowns off and they started to nip at my arm repeatedly until I stopped I found that hilarious! !!!

 

[skriz]

Acroholic;921398 wrote: If I knew the answer to that question I probably wouldn't be having a cyano outbreak every year, hehehe!

But seriously, my best guess is it comes in with a new coral addition or something similar. I think I had it in a very small spot or two before it started to spread some, but the combination of me changing out my year old Radium halide bulbs, and the addition of 660 watts of supplemental VHO Super Actinic to the tank probably gave it a bit more light to grow.

It wasn't a bad case to start with, but for me it is just easier to hit it with ChemiClean when I see it and be done with it.

Ha!

Yeah, I've found that radiums don't last a year; they're much better suited for an earlier retirement. I think I'm going to change lamps: try the dual arcs or switch to 10kk or 14kk and supplement.

 

[smoothie]

Every year? Been talking to some other guys with the same problem. Dealing with the same problem with my work tank. All links to a larger temp swing. My home personal tank that I can easily keep the same temp year round stays clean and bullet proof. You guys have a lot larger temp swing to deal with than I do though. Merry Christmas Dave and Raj