# Cleaning heavily rockscaped tanks



## nauTik (Mar 18, 2009)

So I've been doing this for a while but I've always had the issue of detritus getting under my rocks. This leads to me generally having to completely rescape my mbuna tank every time I do a full clean.

I'm just curious how all you guys keep the detritus out from underneath your rocks? Its not so much a pain for my less rock heavy tanks, but my mbuna tank drives me crazy.

Is there a trick I've missed out on? I mean you can't tell me those guys with reef tanks rearrange all that live rock and coral every time they want to get all that detritus out of there


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Two things that I do might help some. One is I don't worry it too much. I go by what my test results show for water quality. If the PH,Gh, Kh and nitrates are staying normal, I ignore the mulm that collects under the rocks until I do something that requires moving them anyway. Then I do the total cleaning. It just results in needing a bit more water changing to compensate for the extra Bio load. A second method is using the hose I refill with to blow under and around the rocks to get some of it to come out. I sometimes go back the next day to collect this with the vac if there is enough to look bad. Kind of do a mini vacing the second round.


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## hey_wood1981 (Apr 7, 2004)

Use a turkey baster and blow what you can out before you do a water change. Shut down your filters to avoid them sucking up the debris/waste/sand when you do it.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Also if you put your rocks in first and substrate after, there is not much way debris can get under the bottom rock. It's important to do this anyway so the fish can't topple the pile.

The bottom rock tends to be big/stable to support those on top. It's likely to have a close fit with the bottom helping to seal out contaminants.


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## toledo guy (Jun 23, 2010)

Something that works for me is using my Koralia powerhead. Before a water change I remove it and handhold while running to sweep around and under rocks.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

*The bottom rock tends to be big/stable to support those on top. It's likely to have a close fit with the bottom helping to seal out contaminants.*

Amen to that.
One of the biggest mistakes a guy can make when rockscaping is not having the bottom rocks on a solid surface.
Once the layers go on top, the fun begins.
All those great crevices, nooks, and caves seem to be where the poop collects.
I`ve spent more time than any rational human should, on setting up flow patterns from filter returns and power head placement, with a great deal of the poop still collecting where it`s hard to get at.
I tried the turkey baster, at best, OK for my tank.
I could blast a bunch loose, but then it would go all over, only to settle in another hard to reach spot.
I attached a plastic putty knife to a fiberglass rod and would swish it around the rocks. It created enough current that it would suck the gunk out. But, as with the baster, it would then settle in another unwanted spot.
I finally cobbed together a powered vacuum out of an inline pump, coupled with a cartridge water filter.
This really did the job for me. 
I could use the return flow to blow the gunk out of the rocks, while moving the intake to suck it all up.
Pretty simple build.
Dosen`t cost a fortune to build.
For folk with multiple tanks, it`s easy to move from tank to tank.


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## Dieselfool (Aug 11, 2010)

Hey Kaiser, lets have a look at your vacuum please.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)




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## Dieselfool (Aug 11, 2010)

Very cool, t/y.
Al.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I just hold the Python on "siphon" opposite the turkey baster blast.

I definitely find that more filtration (as in 7X versus 4X) eliminates most debris in the first place.


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## jonathansruelas (Aug 28, 2010)

PfunMo said:


> Two things that I do might help some. One is I don't worry it too much. I go by what my test results show for water quality. If the PH,Gh, Kh and nitrates are staying normal, I ignore the mulm that collects under the rocks until I do something that requires moving them anyway. Then I do the total cleaning. It just results in needing a bit more water changing to compensate for the extra Bio load. A second method is using the hose I refill with to blow under and around the rocks to get some of it to come out. I sometimes go back the next day to collect this with the vac if there is enough to look bad. Kind of do a mini vacing the second round.


i agree.. i have the same problem as you with my mbuna tank


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## cgmark (Aug 18, 2010)

Like others I use water pressure to loosen up any debris. Mainly I have to do this with caves. I use a small powerhead and hold it in my hand and move it along the bottom to stir up debris.


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## nodima (Oct 3, 2002)

There are a few things you can do to minimize the amount of detritus accumulating under rocks. First use a sand substrate as opposed to gravel. 
Second, use UGJ's to direct water flow around the tank. 
Third, plan your filter intakes strategically.

I have a 150 Gal Frontosa tank, which contains a good amount of rock. I set up the tank so that the current at the top goes right to left, then down the left side, and left to right along the bottom. There are a pair of UGJ in the tank roughly even with the braces. These are aimed left to right also. Both filter intakes are on the right side.

The result is that minimal detritus accumulates anywhere in the tank, which is a good thing, as pulling rocks out of a 30" tank more than once a year or longer is a PITA. Yup - that's right, the tank went more than 2 years without picking up the rocks to clean, and when I did, it was not all that dirty. The filter prefilters collect a lot of gunk, and get cleaned every other week or so as they start to collapse.


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