Moving Base Rock

I moved a big piece of base rock when trying to change my rock structure around and there was a bunch of grey waste dust looking stuff under it. Should I be concerned about this stuff affecting my tank in a bad way or will it all just be sucked into the filter and skimmer?This is the first time i have disturbed the base rock in the year and a half the tanks been running??!!

 

i would suck as much up as i could its just old crap food and dead plants

 

K, I'll do that asap but I'm assuming I dont have to worry about increased nitrates/phosphates.nitrites or any bacterial growth from disturbing the sand bed under it I hope. What kind of fish is that in your picture?

 

Glad to see a post on this, I am worried about the same thing. I have lots of dead spots and to my knowledge, if these spots haven't been giving the aerobic bacteris the right amount of oxygen then they turn into anaerobic spots and can toxify your water. It would seems as though movinhg these things would obviously release bad things. Need more opinions or experience with this topic please...

So are you going to seed your rock? I.e take it out and clean it?

Sorry if I am not making sense, am a newbie...

 

No, not seeding or anything, just rearranging some rock work and moved this massive piece and found a bunch of grey powder. I didn't disturb the sand bed much but was still trying to get some other peoples input on it. I still havent vacuumed it up, being lazy after spending all that time tryin to balance rock. The new aquascaping looks a lot better, will probably change it a bit again later but my base is where I want it pretty much now. I'm hopin most of it will be gone by morning because its close to my filter intake. If not I'll vacuum it tommorow while doing a 10% water change.

 

My tank has been up for around 10 months..
One day I moved a large piece of liverock, and there was alot of that stuff under it..
I would get it out if I could.. Your filters should..
I belive you will find that and other stuff under your L/R.. It's just part of our systems..
And IMHO nothing to worry about.. As long as your water test good..
Everything breaks on down, and theres something to eat it..

Good Luck, Larry

 

I would try not to disturb the sand bed that usally can cause a problem if u have a dsb but the grey stuff is pretty broke down and removing should be easy if its on the top of sand. Do u ever clean the sand bed ?

 

I recently had to remove about 60 lbs LR to find an uber crab, decided to remove all of it and re-scape the tank, I removed extra detritus with the old tank water in buckets for holding LR during re-scaping, didn't disturb SB too much, filter got a lot of that junk from under rocks, as did WC since I was moving all of the rock. You didn't move much, you should be good.

 

This "stuff" you're all referring to is detritus. Over time it will pollute a tank if left to settle. A powerhead or turkey baster aimed at the sand will stir this up. It feeds corals, which is good. Also, stirring it up into the water column will help to get it to the mechanical filtration in your sump or HOB canister or other type of filter.

Detrivores like some snails, hermit crabs, etc., can only do so much to rid your tank of this; and it's up to us to get rid of the rest regularly.

This stuff should not be allowed to accumulate.

 

yep what he said