Blowing around detritus

I was wondering........ I blow as much stuff off of rocks/bottom of tank as I can and it floats around in the water column for a while until it either settles or gets sucked up through the skimmer/filter. Is it detrimental for my livestock to have this stuff just blowing around for a while??

Also, should I take the prefilter off of my SeaClone skimmer? Will it be more effective or anything?

 

It is a good idea to perform this procedure! It not only helps to loosen up detritus and algae from gaining a stronghold on rock and corals as well, possibly suffocating or aggitating the corals but is a way of enabling the skimmer to remove this detritus. Also their are filter feeders, gorgonians, and both hard and soft corals that will feed on this floating smorgasbord!

 

I have noticed that my feather duster opens up a lot when this happens. It kind of reminds me of marine snow floating around which is technically what it is I suppose....

 

not to jack the thread but what is detritus

 

A number of organic products such as fish waste, old food, dead organisms etc. that accumulates in the tank.

 

I did this for awhile, but I later noticed that it began to accumulate in my sump and refugium. My refugium has a protiem skimmer, my sump has a sock and protien skimmer and I also have a HOB skimmer that should be collecting most of it. Somehow it would get past even the sock. I would suggest you try to get rid of most of it during water changes, try to not do it too often outside of that. Just my two cents.

 

So what do you guys think about prefilter removal on the skimmer? I mean I know it's there to catch bigger chunks, I suppose, but would taking the filter sponge piece off help the skimmer collect this stuff any faster/more efficiently?

 

I would leave the sponge... the way I see it a lot of that stuff is just going to go back up the return pump. I wash the sponge about once a week or maybe it would be a good idea to wash it a few hours after a rock blasting.

 

Just re read your post.. if it's a sponge only for the skimmer intake... I'm not sure about that. I had a carbon bag leak in my tank and a few of the bits got into my skimmer..It won't work well(if at all) if you get some big bits in there. At first I was just thinking about the big sponge in my sump that all water goes through.

 

I have a SeaClone HOB. It's the sponge at the intake.