How To Use Turkey Baster to Help Clean

[twodaend]

Sorry for the silly question, but I had to ask. I've read that you can use a turkey baster to help clean debris off rocks and sand. So I went out and got a turkey baster to try. I gave my rocks a blast and all of this stuff blew off. Looks like rock dust. I then gave my sand some small blast as to not disturb the sand too much. Also what came out was something that resembled dust.

Because of this, may water became very cloudy. So I only did 1/4 the tank. Should I do a water change or is this the correct way to use the turkey baster. If so, should I continue with the rest of the tank?

Thanks

[jdhanover]

It's what I do occasionally - it should clear quickly.

[BenjieC]

You should do it as part of your water change process. I don't do it every time I do a water change but try to at least once a month.

[twodaend]

It did clear in about 10 minutes and I did do a small water change just to be safe. I was wondering about the process of water changes though, because the debris did settle and although the rocks are cleaner, the sand still has debris on it.

Right now, I have a MJ400 that I connect to some tubing. I stick the MJ400 in the tank and put the other end of the tubing into a bucket and turn the pump on. The water flows out. However, by doing this, I'm not doing a gravel vac. The water is just being taking out so I'm confused about gravel vac in a SW tank.

In my Oscar tank, I use my python gravel vac and I actually but it down in the sand to stir up the sand and clean it. The sand is heavier so as long as I don't leave it there too long, the sand never gets sucked up. But in a SW tank, from my understanding, I don't want to disturb the sand like that because my BB is there.

So I guess my question would be how do I clean the sand in a SW tank? Can I do the same thing in my SW tank as I do in my Oscar tank?

I want to fine tune my water change procedure so that everything is taken care of properly.