Storms In A Reef Tank

Around the world our ocean reefs are subjected to tropical storms.  Not always in the form of hurricanes & typhoons but storms like we experience on land.  All ocean storms have the ability to stir up the ocean floor, especially around shallow reef areas.  Reef life have developed coping mechanisms to weather such storms.  Though we may think of storms as "bad", in our reef aquariums, they can be a very good thing.

A method I highly recommend to help clean our tanks as well as "feed" our inverts & corals is called "storming" a tank.  This is done by gently blowing our rocks & around our corals with a turkey baster.  Blowing lifts detritus (fine dirt) out of the rock crevices & suspends it making it more available for removal via our skimmer etc.  Storming also lifts up & suspends plankton materials deposited by tiny microorganisms therefore making them available for our corals & inverts to feed on.  So, in a nutshell, storming our tanks helps to clean the tank as well as feed our corals.  I like to storm my tanks at least once a week & just before I do my water change.

Please be aware that most corals do not like to have detritus sitting on their tissue.  Storming may allow detritus to settle on your corals & cause some (like Sinularias & Toadstools) to slough (bathe by closing, secreting a mucous then shedding it).  In some cases detritus can burn coral tissue, even making a hole (commonly seen on Toadstool corals) so if after storming your tank you see detritus sitting on your corals, gently blow it off them.

Lastly, do not storm your tank if you know or even suspect your tank has cyanobacteria (commonly known as Red Slime Algae) as storming will just break up the cyano and cause it to spread more through your tank.  If you just have nuisance algae, storming is good as it robs the algae of excess nutrient that's feeding it.

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