Live rocks and sand

[b_s_c1]

I deceided to take the bio balls out of my wet dry filter. My question is about my live rock and sand bed in my tank. I blow debris off the rock every time I do a water change. Most of this seems to stay in the tank. How can this be good? I used the turkey baster and blew the sand. It seemed to be turning the sand over nicely and freeing up a lot of debris. Is this ok and should I add it to my maint?

Any good ideas on the best way to use a wet dry filter without the balls.

I am tring to go mostly reef with this tank with a couple of fish.

Any help or ideas would be appriciated.

55 gal tank, 45 lb lr, 15 lb ls, coralife protein skimmer, 4 gal wet dry trickle filter, lighting needs upgrading

 

[b_s_c1]

any ideas?

 

[ddinox64]

I do the same thing but I do not disturb my sand bed. Well not intentionally. I blast my rock mosty about once a month.

After doing so I will suck up water, then with the tip just above surface level I squeeze it to inject micro bubbles into the tank a bunch of times. I do this so the debris attaches to the bubbles, or if not, atleast the bubbles push the debris to the surface to enter the overflow.

I currently am running a cannister filter and that I know sucks up a bunch of the garbage. When I get the 90g in the garage set up eventually. I will not be using the cannister filter. But when I do my monthly blasto work I will use it to help remove this mess. Then when done just remove.

Do you notice when you blast your rocks you see lots of stringy things like spider webs? I'm told these are a type of worm and they smell or sense the crud and extend out to get food floating around. I never have ill effects after doing the blast treatment. It clears up rather fast and and everything looks normal.