Powerwashing rock

[Paul B]

How many of you guys clean your rocks? In the sea there are typhoons that do this and they do it often and very well. I have seen 12' brain corals toppled after typhoons so I know the turbulence will not hurt them.
I use a diatom filter with a restriction on the outflow hose to blast detritus out of the rock. You would be surprised how much gunk comes out of rock. The benefits of rock are determined by their porosity which unfortunately diminishes in time whan the rock is in a tank. The citculation from the powerheads will do nothing to clean out the pores in the rock. Thats probably where Old Tank Syndrome came from. I have the same rocks in my tank since the seventees and have been cleaning them a few times a year. They are full of tube worms, spaghetti worms, pods etc.
The bacteria in the pores of the rock need food, they get that food from the entrance of the pore, in time the pore closes up from detritus and the activities of the bacteria and worms. Eventually the pore is just a dent and the rock is no longer porous enough for de nitrification to occur.
Just a thought. rangehat

 

[NYreefNoob]

i do the same with my canister filter to some of the rock once a month also. so much gunk comes off it

 

[MikeyZO]

you just blast it into the tank and let the filter do the rest? I would think that a lot of the crap would just settle back down on the rock/sand bed. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you do. (and not to say it isnt a good idea)

 

[Paul B]

Not exactly, I blast it into the rock with a very powerful stream then I take the restriction off the diatom filter, stir up as much as I can and let the diatom filter remove everything. I don't have a DSB so I powerwash the rocks, gravel and glass. If you have a DSB you can't stir up the sand much.
I guess that is one reason I don't like DSB's.

 

[MikeyZO]

Ahh... so you blast it out of the rock into the tank and then basically suck it back up with the diatom filter and send it back into the tank. I can see how having a dsb would suck while doing that. I know when I do a wc, I try to siphon across the top of the rock, and the amount of crap that comes out of some of the holes is amazing.

 

[Paul B]

I figured after writing this would be a good time to powerwash the rock (and everything else)
Using the diatom filter with a long acrylic tube and a restriction on the end I stirred up everything as I usually do. My front glass looks almost like sheet metal now but in 5 minutes the diatom clears a lot of it so I can at least see the rear glass.
The engineer gobi is real mad because he had these elaborate tunnels all over the tank which are now history, boy if looks could kill.
The other fish enjoy it except of course for the hippo tang, there is no pleasing tangs, everything bothers them.
There are dozens of spaghetti worms enjoying the ride around the tank and the scooter bleenie is in heaven. He is trying to eat everything.
I really diden't want to do this today because for some reason the water seemed clearer than usual with nothing floating or disturbing the scenery.
I thought the fish were getting too spoiled so I slummed up the neighborhood.
They will thank me in a few hours, except the the hippo.
He's sending me hate mail.

 

[boardryder]

I kind of do the same thing. I have a sea squirt that I spray at my lr every so often after I'm done feeding. It's amazing the stuff that comes out of the rock. I need to hook up my canister filter though from now on to pull out all the detrious as I mostly do it for the porosity issue of the rock. I should pull out the detrious. Good to see what I'm doing is a good thing.

 

[Wes]

i blast the rocks w/ a turkey baster every once in a while.