The instructions on my protein skimmer communicate to clean the bio-bale in salt water once every 4 months. The guy at the pet shop said never to do that....it would remove the biological filter that had set up in my protein skimmer. I've also read that if the power goes out for more than a few hours...the bilogical filter within protein skimmers will be wiped out. This kindof seems to back the pet shop guy. Also..reading the post on the hair algae problem...several of you guys stated not to buy a sand sifter...that it would eat all of the critters we all work so hard to harvest in our sand bed. This makes sense as well... I've gotten a bit attached to my Gobie (Valenciennea puellaris). Sounds like I need to take him back.