This is odd...

[TheReefGeek]

The stuff (settled detrius mostly) you turkey baste is harmfull. That is why you want to get it off the rocks and/or sandbed (I only baste my rocks, I have critters to turn over my sand) and then suspended in the water, where filters can pick it up, then when you clean/replace the filters you remove the junk.

[Beverly]

Scott,

I baste my rock every week the day before water changes. Nothing happens except that some of the crud actually makes it into the foams in our mechanical filters That's why cleaning the foams on our weekly water change day is so important becuase it exports the crud.

In your case, most of the crud has already degraded into nitrate and phosphate. But don't let that stop you from de-crudding your tank with the method I described.

Using an AC500 might be over kill due to the amount of flow it will add to your 20g tank. Maybe an AC300 might be more in tune with the size of your tank. Don't use carbon in it, use foam. The foam will collect the crud way better than carbon and you can easily clean the foam, then begin the basting cycle again. And make sure you clean the foam as soon as the tank clears so the crud is exported asap.

When I used this technique on our first tank, a 75g, I basted that poor tank sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. Even basting into the sandbed did not cause any problems, and of course, that's where most of my cyano was. Basting the sandbed broke up the cyano, sent it into the water column along with LOTS of crud, and all was sucked into the foams. Once I realized how safe it was to baste sand and rock, I made it my mission to baste and clean the foams as often as I could

Since that bad cyano outbreak in our 75g years and years ago, I always baste my rock (and sandbeds, when we had them) before every weekly water change.

HTH

[TheReefGeek]

Bev, do you use anything special to clean your foams, or just elbow grease?

How often do you replace your foams?

[Beverly]

Rory,

I squeeze the living heck out of them in container after container of hot tapwater until they are clean.

I replace them when they start falling apart or when they lose their rectangular shape. Usually they last at least two months, often longer.

[TheReefGeek]

Good to know, thanks Bev.