How often do you "blow out" your live rock?

[jglackin]

I am curious. I did a large water change last weekend, after I spent a good bit of time blowing all of the sediment out of my live rock with a turkey baster. There was a large amount of stuff blowing out of the rocks. The rock I have is very porous and, when I put the tip of the baster in one of the holes in the live rock, sediment will blow out of at least 4 or 5 other holes in the rock. Anyway, last night, I was feeding my sun corals using the turkey baster and some of the mysis floated down and settled onto a flat rock I have in the center of the tank. When I used the turkey baster to blow the mysis off the rock, a large amount of sediment blew up off of the rock. This got me to start blowing out my live rock again and I noticed that the sediment was blowing out of the live rock like I had never done it before, let alone the fact that I just did it 5 days ago.

How often do you do this? Do you do this with every water change? Weekly? Monthly? Never?

[PSam]

Turkey baster. Every couple weeks.

[kawicivic]

i do it every 3-4 days if i remember... weekly for sure

[bignick]

Probably 3-4 times a year if i remember. I am overdue actually.

[Flint&Eric]

weekly before every waterchange, and usually one more time mid week.

[-=Efrain=-]

With my 6 foot tank I do a 3rd right before a water change. I don't want to cloud up the water too much.

[skunkmere]

do the corals eat that stuff?

[bobt2]

i vacuum the rock during water changes

[ostrow]

Did it once. Was a PITA.

[Aquaticman74]

Weekly with every water change.

[aiko670]

Never, that's what a clean up crew and worms are for....

[ostrow]

Never, that's what a clean up crew and worms are for....

[esdayal]

I never did it till now.. I was still waiting for something better than turkey baster but from now Ill put a reminder in my smartphone calender for every 2 weeks. happy !!

[Pufferpunk]

I was told, it helps the rock with O2 exchange, otherwise the biological filtration is choked out by the detrious.

[skunkmere]

what if you used a power head connected to a hose and use that instead of a baster?

[kawicivic]

If you are relying on a cleanup crew to clean the detritus off of rocks then obviously if you bust out a turkey baster and make a storm then its not working... nothing wrong with helping nature out a little bit

I also agree with choking out the bacteria if it gets too deep.

[444reefkeeper]

I think I did it once last year.... None this year. Never been too concerned about it. It food for something. Not alot on the rocks anyways between the surges and my team off cucumbers.

[Tremolo]

wow funny that this was posted i just got back from the store with a turkey baster because i have never done it before and it is getting loaded up with detritus. Plus i want to use it for target feeding corals with rod's food.

[jglackin]

Thanks for all of the replies.

I have not been doing it with any regularity, but I have decided that I will do it with every water change. Not only to keep the sediment from building up, but also to keep open the cracks and crevices for critters to breed and hide.

[phil5613]

another benefit is I see better coraline growth when i do it regularly. remember we cant duplicate the motion of the ocean to the exact randomness and power so a little baster help doesnt hurt