What cleans the bottom of the tank?

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCReefer

So how many people stir up their coral/sand base?

I heavily turkey baste my sandbed and rock, and lightly baste corals, at least once a week. I have foam in my powerhead's prefilter that removes some of the crud that enters the water column from the basting. After the tank clears from the basting, I clean the foam thoroughly.

If you've never basted your tank, it's going to get REALLY cloudy the first time you do it. Don't be freaked, it'll settle down. Make sure you clean the crud from your mechanical filter, though, otherwise the crud will clog up the filter and it'll run much less efficiently. Plus you aren't exporting any curd if you leave it in the filter media.

If you really want to clean up your sandbed and rock after a long period of not cleaning it, make the basting and filter cleaning an all day thing. You'll be surprised how much crud you export and your sandbed will look amazingly great afterward.