too clean or not too clean

[lakester]

Last night while doing a regular water change, I decided to vacuum the sump and rinse the pumps. We have no filter media in the sump, bare bones, no lights either. There was a considerable amount of muck on the bottom of the sump. After completing the change I thought about what I had done. Did I remove an essential amount of bacteria or other organisms from the system or is this standard good housekeeping practice?

Also we are trying a product called Algone. Anyone have any experience with it? Can it be used with Auquamarine nitrate reducer?


Thanks,

Lakester :-?

[Reptoreef]

IMO, you were probably ok to vac out the bare bottom sump(Better off to put a small powerhead to circulate and not allow accumulation), but I advise very highly against chemical cures... just too many neg possibilities of side effects.

[ereefic]

Flushing your toilet is a good thing, so is syphoning out your sump. :tongue:

Like Repto said, better if you can have a skimmer remove it so it doesn't sit there and break down, plus all you have to do is clean the skimmer instead.

I, also am not a big fan of chemical additives for cures. Your much better off figuring out what the cause of the problem is and take care of that rather than try to mask the problem which is likely to return until the source of the problem is taken care of.

[lakester]

Thanks for the reassurances. First time any one compared my tank to a toilet, not so sure thats a good thing, but it made the point.

To my knowledge neither the algone or the nitrate reducer is a chemical additive. The nitrate reducer is a bacteria based product, available through DFS.

On the algone website www.algone.com they state that the product is safer than chemical additives but don"t offer much more info than that. I'm going to call them for more info.

The state of the tank overall is healthy, good fish longevity, strong coral growth. Just can't seem to get the nitrates down below 20-30.

Lakester

[Reptoreef]

An addition of a DSB or plenum in that bare area of the sump may be what the doc ordered... additions of LR may also be beneficial. Are you using any kind of wet/dry media(bio balls, etc)? If so, slowly remove them(about 20% per week until gone).

[ereefic]

Lakester, sorry, wasn't comparing your tank to a toilet. Just saying that by syphoning your sump, your removing the detritus as the same way that flushing the toilet removes poopie. :)

Personally, I would skip the DSB and the LR in that area. The DSB isn't really going to be big enough to really be beneficial and the LR will only trap more detritus making it harder to remove. I would just continue to syphon out what ever gathers in there when you do your water changes. It ain't going to break down if it's not in the system. :)

[lakester]

Thanks for the advice.

Just wanted to follow up on the ALGONE product. I called the company and was told it is made up of plant fiber. Intended to encourage bacteria growth.

[BUGZME]

I'm with repto! I would definately create a DSB and live rock. It adds more area for bugs to grow and more filtering power

[Reptoreef]

just be sure whatever you do ta add a powerhead to circulate the water over that chamber to detour any further detritus accumulation.