Would this work?

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Wow Beverly, I've only cleaned my mini a couple times a year. I clean the foam with my water change though if I am going to use foam.

In the 6 month old 7 gal, we have two fish, a grey brittle star, a tiny orange starfish, a cleaner shrimp, an astrea snail and a pale green featherduster. As for hitchhikers that I know about, we have a one inch orange lobster, a quarter inch white crab and a huge bristleworm, all hiding in various porous rock cavities. So I feed the tank quite heavily, and because of the large feedings, it only seems prudent to clean up their crap as often as possible. I use a foam in the Mini as a crap trap, so when I clean it frequently, the foam doesn't have the chance to become a nitatre factory. Also, before cleaning the Minis, I gently turkey baste the sandbed and rock in order for the foams to pick up and export that much more gunk.

It's definitely a PITA to clean the Minis on both the 7 and 2.5 gals so often. But then, I bathe daily, floss my teeth daily and brush them morning and night, so why not care for my beloved reefs with the same diligence? BTW, I haven't had a cavity for years and years with this system, and I'm nearing the big 5-O in a few short years. And I smell pretty good some of the time too :-)

Heck, when we had the 180 gal reef, I did a weekly 30 gal water changes, cleaned the skimmer weekly, and cleaned the prefilters in the Hagen 802s weekly too. I balked at tearing apart the 802s weekly, but did do it at least every 3-4 weeks.

IMHO, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially where living beings are concerned. I don't want my animals living in a toilet, though that's not what I'm saying you or others are doing because I don't know your setups. I'm saying I do lots of maintenance on our tanks because of a high population that I feed fairly liberally. Plus, I'm just a little bit anal ;-)

Just today we brought home a 42 gal hex. I'll do weekly 5 gal water changes on this baby for sure. This tank won't have a skimmer either, so I'll be cleaning the prefilter on the 802 weekly just like all the rest. Sheesh!!

Take care :-)