How often do you blow off your rock?

[BlackTip]

I didn't do it for couple of months, and when I did it last week, there was a lot of particles and precipitation on the rocks despite the fact that I have very good flow across the tank. There was a lot of white particles from precipitation.

I wonder how it is done when the tank is full of corals.

[toothybugs]

Weekly, with a MaxiJet 1200. Set the pumps to Storm mode, blow out the rocks, and let it all get carried away. Amazing what comes out of the system.

[dianapickles]

I don't do it at all. Is it something we need to do in terms of cleaning or do people just prefer to do it?

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by dianapickles

I don't do it at all. Is it something we need to do in terms of cleaning or do people just prefer to do it?

Even with strong water flow, detritus settles in all the nooks and crannies.
Grab a turkey baster and start blowing. You'll be surprised what gets blown out. Getting it into the water column will help get some of it out of the tank to your filter socks or whatever. This will help remove excess nutrients from the tank. Also helps feed the corals.

[dendrite]

Originally Posted by toothybugs

Weekly, with a MaxiJet 1200. Set the pumps to Storm mode, blow out the rocks, and let it all get carried away. Amazing what comes out of the system.

+1 I use a filter sock and blow off the corals and rocks just before my weekly water change, then obviously change the filter sock right after the water change

[Reef Frog]

In the past I did it on my 6 year old 65g tank irregularly with a turkey baster and ran filter pads to capture the junk.

I recently did a major "deep clean" as part of my big yearly maintenence. Really blew everything off thoroughly with a powerhead. I had never done it with this kind of vigor before. I was astounded and kind of horrified by what came out from BEHIND the rocks. The water turned a milky tan color that I could barely see through. I'm thinking "this came out of MY tank"? An hour before I was looking at what appeared to be a clean, well maintained tank. This kind of build up is what causes nutrients to spike and become incorrigible. It's what can make old tanks crash in what some call OTS or old tank syndrome if not addressed and is what pest algae attacks are made of! When it's in that quantity, you've got to get it out.

I'm certain the majority of it came from the planktonic sized foods I have fed over the years that didn't make it to the guts of corals, fish & inverts. I'm sure other components were made of shedder coral & fish tissue & their waste products Basiclly "marine snow" attracted to the rocks, all courtesy of Van Der Waals force. I'm going to back off this kind of feeding somewhat going foreword, and use less plankton food volume by targeting when I do decide to feed. And I'll be blowing the heck of the area behind my rock work more often, that's do sure!

The funny thing is I might have brought this all on myself. Last year I had concerns about some poor coral coloration. I fed the corals more while dramatically reducing mechanical filtration, and it helped a lot. I slowed down GFO use and turned the skimmer off several hours per day. Things REALLY turned around. But I think I let he pendulum swing too far in the other direction. Ohhh the difficulties of maintaining balance in a dynamic system - once vanquished algae issues slowly crept back...

In my next tank, I have some design ideas that hopefully will eliminate this kind of thing and make it much easier to deal with on a regular basis and hopefully even keep it from happening in the first place.

[dianapickles]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Even with strong water flow, detritus settles in all the nooks and crannies.
Grab a turkey baster and start blowing. You'll be surprised what gets blown out. Getting it into the water column will help get some of it out of the tank to your filter socks or whatever. This will help remove excess nutrients from the tank. Also helps feed the corals.

I guess I'll start doing that then. For some weird reason I was always scared I could crash my tank somehow by blowing all that stuff around.

[BlackTip]

Is it safe to assume that the dirty water from blowing off the rocks doesn't harm or bother sensitive corals like SPS? Especially in established tanks that have a so many corals?

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by BlackTip

Is it safe to assume that the dirty water from blowing off the rocks doesn't harm or bother sensitive corals like SPS? Especially in established tanks that have a so many corals?

It's coral food! The only harm is if it all just resettles somewhere else to be eaten and broken down into more ammonia/nitrates/phosphates.

I suppose you could be concerned that stirring it all up could in theory feed a bacteria bloom that might use up more oxygen from the water and could in theory cause dissolved oxygen to be so low as to suffocate fishes, and eventually corals, but that's super unlikely unless you have very little flow or air exchange.

I wouldn't worry about it. It's good to keep detritus where you can get rid of it, in the water column where you can filter or skim it out, settled in the sump where you can siphon it, etc.

I haven't really blown any detritus from my tank. If I feel that crap is settling around, I just crank up my MP10s (29g biocube) and put them on nutrient transport mode, and it'll shake up any loose detritus, so it can eventually settle in the back chambers, where I can easily siphon it out with my next water change.

[Dmorty217]

Haven't ever blown off my rocks. The MP60s do it everyday for me. Depends on the setup I suppose but once every other week or monthly seems normal?

[toothybugs]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

It's coral food!

Blowing the crap out of my rocks is actually how I got my suns to open up on a regular basis. Lots of good stuff in there, no sense wasting it!

[thegrun]

I try to get to it every other week in my tank, even with a lot of flow I still get detritus deposits in the deep cracks and holes.

[jd371]

I blast the rocks with a turkey baster right before a WC and siphon it out.

[jayball]

My rock is pukani so it has cracks and caves that lace through it so I try to go deep at least once a month. I will also blow off a rock or two after feeding to keep cyano from showing up, it loves starting in a cranny filled with gunk.

[steallife904]

I do it at least 2 times a week.... try to at least. one random and right before water change. Everytime I do my coral (sps and lps) go crazy! I run 2 gyre 150 and still cant believe how much stuff comes out when I blow the rocks out. Its really a good idea to do it!

[jbm421]

I would try a few times a week but that was because I hated waiting until it completely clouded the tank and then would settle in the sps colonies overnight and cause dead spots in the base of the colonies from where it sat all night. would take a while to heal up after that.

[smatter]

I blow off my rocks at least twice a week. Sometimes my wife helps out. She says there is something satisfying about liberating all that gunk.

[ca1ore]

Never. Isn't necessary as I get no build up.

[Grandlotus]

My clown fish and wrasse love to kick up sand so I have to blow the sand off of the rocks/sps almost weekly.

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by smatter

I blow off my rocks at least twice a week. Sometimes my wife helps out. She says there is something satisfying about liberating all that gunk.

Schwing.

[smatter]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Schwing.

When I see an open door I'm gonna walk through it

[cmbspd]

Originally Posted by BlackTip

Is it safe to assume that the dirty water from blowing off the rocks doesn't harm or bother sensitive corals like SPS? Especially in established tanks that have a so many corals?

This depends a lot more on individual circumstances than some of the replies suggest- especially how often you blow off the rocks and how much buildup you "mobilize". You want to avoid a spike in nutrients by rapidly removing the buildup from the water column instead of just moving it around the tank so that more surface area is exposed for decomposition, which could spike N or P levels, nutrients pile up in lighted areas where algae could grow instead of the dark crevices, etc. That's why people emphasize filter socks. If you've never blown off your rocks before and are concerned about overall stability for SPS then you might do it sections at a time, with a few days pause in between.

[DivingTheWorld]

I replace my filter sock every 3 days. An hour or so before I do, I blow off all my rocks, montis, etc. with a turkey baster.

[Sk8r]

Lol---I would have said never, but lately I have a fish that takes care of it. Adult domino. She gets into the rockwork and fans her tail so that I need to put a sock on to clear the water.

[smatter]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Lol---I would have said never, but lately I have a fish that takes care of it. Adult domino. She gets into the rockwork and fans her tail so that I need to put a sock on to clear the water.

Sounds like she's earning her keep around there!