sediment?

[jentau8]

My tank is just about a year old and all is well. The other day while I was feeding my seahorses (using a pipette) I discovered that if I flushed my rocks tons of white cloud comes out of tiny holes. It looks pretty cool but then I wondered should I leave it alone or clean out all the rocks. My rocks started out bare and now most of them are covered with purple, coralline algae I guess. What's the white stuff, good or bad? Fluff it or let it build up?

[olsaltybastard]

Every once in a while, I flush mine out. Usually, this is done with a filter sock on the drains so most of it is removed.

[Patrick™]

This is the result of the metabolic processes and breakdown of organic compounds by the bacteria living on your live rock. Ideally, you should have sufficient random oscillating current that will scrub your live rock and blow this off. However, that is very unlikely in the home aquarium. As such, you should use a small powerhead and blow it off the rocks to be suspended in the water column and removed via mechanical filtration such as a filter sock. This should be done at least monthly during your waterchanges. If this stuff is not removed it can form a substrate which algae can anchor in and use as nutrients. Additionally this basically creates a barrier on that live rock and that area that is sufficiently covered cannot continue to process waste in the aquarium.

[Tangboy]

Originally Posted by Patrick™

This is the result of the metabolic processes and breakdown of organic compounds by the bacteria living on your live rock. Ideally, you should have sufficient random oscillating current that will scrub your live rock and blow this off. However, that is very unlikely in the home aquarium. As such, you should use a small powerhead and blow it off the rocks to be suspended in the water column and removed via mechanical filtration such as a filter sock. This should be done at least monthly during your waterchanges. If this stuff is not removed it can form a substrate which algae can anchor in and use as nutrients. Additionally this basically creates a barrier on that live rock and that area that is sufficiently covered cannot continue to process waste in the aquarium.

+1 to that... couldn't have said it better myself... or even as good... Okay I would have said it poorly...