Big Clean

[CluelessScot]

Hello,

Tomorrow i have planned to do a 50% water change and remove all the plants and bogwood. Since i dont have a plec now the black of the tank is looking a little dirty and i cant get my algae magnet round the back so its all hands in.

Would it be better/less stressful if i removed all the fish while i am doing the sand stir, filter and heater cleaning, crap sucking uping or would they be just as stressed by by removing them in the first place?

Cheers,

Kev

 

[Mr.September15]

I cant stand a dirty tank so I took out all the fake plants and the cave and siphoned the whole tank. I can see all the fish so scared and stuff but they calmed down soon enough later. Well I was learning yesterday that the whole thing is about timing. You go in and out really fast so the fish wouldn't get so much stress put on them.

-Arrowhead

 

[ARXC08]

I'd probably remove your fish cuz when u lift up bogwod and stuff u see how much crap there is at the bottom of your tank it sinks into the bottom of your gravel. Even with water changes there is still a lot you miss. I recently switched from gravel to sand and had to remove my fish(didn't have angels or cardinals at the time). It was really dirty at the very bottom of the gravel but I cleaned the tank really good and put my fish in a 10 gallon. They were pretty stressed out but the tank got a lot better cleaning then from a water change.

 

[CluelessScot]

Well thats why i wanted to remove the fish. I now have alot of bog wood and when i do my normal water change and suck up the crap i cant quite get all of it under the wood mite have to take em out

thanks

kev

 

[@ombomb]

When I do my big clean outs (50% water change, replanting, vacuum under bogwood / rocks) I normally just do it in two halves. Cleanout the left side of the tank, remove bogwood, re-arraange / prune plants, vacuum the gravel, replace everything. Then leave the tank for a while to let them settle down and do the other half.

 

[Bloo]

When I do my big clean outs (50% water change, replanting, vacuum under bogwood / rocks) I normally just do it in two halves. Cleanout the left side of the tank, remove bogwood, re-arraange / prune plants, vacuum the gravel, replace everything. Then leave the tank for a while to let them settle down and do the other half.

I do exactly the same - I do these big cleans on a "fairly" regular basis every couple of weeks.

 

[millym]

me too..........i mean i do a bigger than usual clean ie: moving large rocks etc every few weeks & tend to divide the tank into 3rds doing one turn about, i dont feel that i could do it all in one day our tiger barbs seem genuinely terrified if i fiddle around too much even though i try & move slowly so as not to startle them & i think theyd all be all keeling over in shock if i did to much at once...........
its funny really when they were babies they werent scared at tank cleaning time at all - more the opposite they used to gather round the gravel vac & watch the show.

 

[thapsus]

I do 50% or more water change every week and never remove fishes. Being chased would only increase their stress.

 

[chishnfips]

I'd probably remove your fish cuz when u lift up bogwod and stuff u see how much crap there is at the bottom of your tank it sinks into the bottom of your gravel. Even with water changes there is still a lot you miss. I recently switched from gravel to sand and had to remove my fish(didn't have angels or cardinals at the time). It was really dirty at the very bottom of the gravel but I cleaned the tank really good and put my fish in a 10 gallon. They were pretty stressed out but the tank got a lot better cleaning then from a water change.

see when you changed to sand though, and you totally cleaned the tank, would you not have wiped out alot of the good bacteria the lives in the gravel, or would the bacteria in the filter be enough to support the tank?

 

[Bloo]

see when you changed to sand though, and you totally cleaned the tank, would you not have wiped out alot of the good bacteria the lives in the gravel, or would the bacteria in the filter be enough to support the tank?

Just about no "good bacteria" resides in gravel. It's mostly poo. I've done 100% gravel sand changes etc. (and also 100% water change when moving house) and never once experienced even the smallest spike - which leads me to believe it's all in the filter.

 

[chishnfips]

so it wouldn't stress the fish out a great deal then. Its just the comotion you would need to worry about.

 

[CluelessScot]

Done my big clean and its not as great as i thought i did the half n half and the fish are looking better but the water is seriously cloudy im off to work at 6:15 so ill see what it looks like when i get home. The corys are going into overdrive tho. unreal how active they are atm lol, thought they would hide.

Thanks for the advice tho

Kev

 

[Bloo]

It should look beautiful by the time you come back

 

[thapsus]

Just about no "good bacteria" resides in gravel. It's mostly poo. I've done 100% gravel sand changes etc. (and also 100% water change when moving house) and never once experienced even the smallest spike - which leads me to believe it's all in the filter.

I think that most of good bacteria is in gravel. Bacteria can't attach to internal filter because of too fast flowing. I've got spike even from partial gravel change. Just wanted to point out other point of view. External filter is whole different thing. And there is no good bacteria in water, thats true.

 

[Jules H-T]

I think that most of good bacteria is in gravel. Bacteria can't attach to internal filter because of too fast flowing. I've got spike even from partial gravel change. Just wanted to point out other point of view. External filter is whole different thing. And there is no good bacteria in water, thats true.

I'm not sure about that.

My experience is that a vast majority of bacteria live in the filter, and even heavy gravel cleans make no difference at all. If you're running a UGF too though, the gravel counts as part of the filter medium.

The whole sock of gravel business is a red herring when cloning tanks so long as you take a decent sixed filter over, I've found. Each to their own though, I'm not criticising anyone.