What cleans the bottom of the tank?

[BCReefer]

What would you suggest if I wanted to get something to clean the bottom of my tank?

I do hvae soft and hard corals in a 33g tank.

Thanks
Patrick

[Aquattro]

What's on the bottom of the tank?

[BCReefer]

Crushed coral, 1 plate coral and a open brain. my other corals are on the rocks.

Patrick

[Aquattro]

Patrick, waht are ou trying to clean? Do you have algae, or just looking messy? Hermits are good for general cleaning, as are cerith snails. If you have something in particular you want cleaned, let us know!

[BCReefer]

compared to other tanks that I have seen my bottom looks a little dirty. Not algae just not the same new look that the coral had when I 1st put it in.

I know that after 2 years it should not look the same but I was wondering if it is bad for the tank. I have heard that some people once a year stir everything up, i.e. pointing a power head onto the substrate replicating the natural reef where water is swirrling around. I do not have any problems with my tank except for the Aptasia problem that I am working on.

So how many people stir up their coral/sand base? Maybe I am looking at a nothing and seeing a problem? I have been so busy with the new baby/work/school over the past 6 months that I have not been as active in my tank as i wanted to be. Now I am getting some more free time and I am ready to spend more time on the tank.

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCReefer

So how many people stir up their coral/sand base?

I heavily turkey baste my sandbed and rock, and lightly baste corals, at least once a week. I have foam in my powerhead's prefilter that removes some of the crud that enters the water column from the basting. After the tank clears from the basting, I clean the foam thoroughly.

If you've never basted your tank, it's going to get REALLY cloudy the first time you do it. Don't be freaked, it'll settle down. Make sure you clean the crud from your mechanical filter, though, otherwise the crud will clog up the filter and it'll run much less efficiently. Plus you aren't exporting any curd if you leave it in the filter media.

If you really want to clean up your sandbed and rock after a long period of not cleaning it, make the basting and filter cleaning an all day thing. You'll be surprised how much crud you export and your sandbed will look amazingly great afterward.

[StirCrazy]

BCReefer
why don't you get a critter that will do this like a cucumber or a conch.

if you have a aged DSB and you go stiring it up you are just asking for cyno blooms and such. I am seeing this now as my mantis decided he must dig at least once a week.

Steve

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

BCReefer
why don't you get a critter that will do this like a cucumber or a conch.

Steve, Some of those sand stirring critters eat the fauna in the sandbed

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

if you have a aged DSB and you go stiring it up you are just asking for cyno blooms and such. I am seeing this now as my mantis decided he must dig at least once a week.

Have been basting the sandbeds and rock in my reefs for as long as I have kept reefs. If anything, basting keeps the cyano at bay, ime.

[Aquattro]

Patrick, since you have a crushed coral substrate, you'll probably be safe stirring or vacuuming your bottom. If you have a DSB, most people would recommend against stirring it as this disturbs the layering. If you've always stirred it as Beverly claims, then you probably don't have the layers to disturb and therefore won't suffer the algae blooms.

The point of a DSB is to create anoxic areas deeper in the substrate for NO3 conversion; stirring negates those benefits.

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

The point of a DSB is to create anoxic areas deeper in the substrate for NO3 conversion; stirring negates those benefits.

There are places my baster can't get to, such as the areas under rock ledges, etc., so there must be some anaerobic activity going on in my reefs.