Are you Vacuuming your tank?

[itiwhetu]

I see in the posts there is talk about vacuuming your tank and the reasons it is good. Don't disagree with most of what is said, but why do we do it.

We do it to remove excess food. So by definition we are over feeding.
We do it to remove excess poo. By definition the tank must be overstocked.
We do it to remove bad stuff. So we must remove good stuff to.

I say that vacuuming is a really bad idea on your normal furnished aquarium,

It is intrusive to your fishes environment. Face it, fish really don't like humans. The less we go into their space the better.
It is really bad for your plants, the plants spend all this energy growing roots so they can hang on, you disturb them, then they have to spend more energy growing roots rather than leaves.
We don't need to remove excess poo, it will breakdown, either our mechanical filter will deal with it. Or our plan is that the plants will.

So don't buy a vacuum by some more plants and let your tank work its magic.

The times you need a vacuum. Is when your 4 year old tips all your fish food into your tank, and when you are feeding fry 4 or 5 times a day, otherwise leave it in the cupboard.

 

[Colin_T]

It is intrusive to your fishes environment. Face it, fish really don't like humans. The less we go into their space the better.

It is really bad for your plants, the plants spend all this energy growing roots so they can hang on, you disturb them, then they have to spend more energy growing roots rather than leaves.

We don't need to remove excess poo, it will breakdown, either our mechanical filter will deal with it. Or our plan is that the plants will.

I beg to differ with you on fish not liking humans. Mine would swim to the front of the tank whenever they saw my bedroom door open and would beg for food. They would also follow my hand around when I was cleaning the tanks and they didn't seem to mind me at all.

I do agree with you that we should not be gravel cleaning too close to plants because we remove the fish poop by the roots and can damage the plant roots. However, gravel cleaning a few inches away from the plants will help remove unwanted waste from the substrate and this reduces the food and habitat for harmful disease organisms that might adversely affect the fish.

 

[Metalhead88]

I'd say its situational.

In a 55 gallon heavily planted tank, I do not gravel vac at all. There's plants, snails, cories, and a pleco to take care of that stuff.

On my larger cichlid tank, I do gravel vac. They are not bothered, and I regularly pull up "dirt" from the gravel. If you have big messy fish, gravel vacing is a good idea. Also, they destroy all my plants and eat snails so cross both of them off the list.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I gravel vac all my tanks except my corie tank. I get disgusting stuff out of some and would not want to live in it. My goldfish tank has no real plants because they eat them. They have huge poop. Two questions for you. 1. Do you live in your own poop? 2. Do you spend a lot of time with your fish? If so, your hand in their tank shouldn’t be a stressful thing. Mine come up to me.

 

[AbbeysDad]

I don't gravel vac... because I don't have gravel! My grow out tanks are bare bottom and my 60g planted display tank is pool filter sand that I never need to touch.
However, for those that have tanks with gravel, vacuuming can be important. To not vacuum the gravel is about like saying 'you should never clean the filter'. Crud gets down under, rots and decays, and can become a nitrate factory.
As important as periodic partial water changes (yes, 'the solution to pollution is dilution') getting the crud out of the filter AND the gravel, leads to a higher water quality. And the best cure for anything and everything is the prevention created by fresh, clean, high water quality.

 

[Retired Viking]

I vacuum my tanks every week when I do my 50% water changes. Since changing to sand I have noticed that my tetra tank does not have as much waste to vacuum up. In fact my water is very clear and clean. It may also have to do with me feeding mosquito larvae more and less flake food. I am open minded on this subject.

 

[BumblePrime]

I have larger fish that will swim into my hand and allow me to pet them. Tetras on the other hand school by nature but will actively look for any bits of food when I vacuum, swimming just out of range of the syphon and then zooming in to see what they can find when I move to the next section.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

My fish don't seem to mind the syphon at all. The young black mollies especially gather in groups around the syphon, no doubt drawn to the bits they can see shooting up the tube, they're always looking for food.

My sand tank requires less substrate cleaning, but it has shrimp as clean up crew, and fish like guppies that will eat from the bottom too. But my gravel tanks desperately need gravel vac-ing, the muck that builds up in there is way more than the plants can use and would soon have the nitrates sky high in my tank if i just left it there. I have a small gravel vac for working around plants without pushing into the root systems.

I think it's too complex to say DO or DO NOT. It depends way too much on the stocking, planting level, how good the filtration might be at picking up anything that hits the substrate, what kind of substrate, etc etc.

 

[AilyNC]

I think of it like a current. In their natural environment the current will sweep away lots of what is at the bottom of the river/lake. The water is in constant flow & not static. So then to best create a fresh environment for them the tank may need a little tidy up with a vacuum & water change. If we really want the closest to natural experience we shouldn't keep fish at all

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