| Nikki IMHO by stiring the top layer of the bed and having a syphon over it to catch the debris you would be pulling out a lot of the detritus/organics that are built up in this zone. This would remove the organic phosphates that are associated with the detritus (same concept as harvesting algae). This would also make sure the arobic zone is well oxygenated, with is very important to the survival of you critters in thier and to the nitrification processing compacity, and really to slow down the sinking of that material to.
Mike |