Cleaning Gravel In Hard To Reach Places?

Jimbo1984

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Hey. I was wondering what other people do when syphoning gravel. I have lots of plants and ornaments covering the floor of my tank which makes the gravel bed hard to get to with my syphon in a lot of places. Is it important that the gravel is cleaned in all areas and frequently? Also, ideally should the gravel bed be completely turned to suck out all solid waste? Obviously to do this it involves uprooting plants and taking out/moving ornaments whilst I perform the task. My syphon also sucks water out very quickly so my bucket's full before i've got round. :unsure:
 
A lot of the bacteria in the gravel is beneficial to the tank. I'm in the same position as you, and just do what I can get to. I don't really want to have to pull up rooted plants or lift up wood with fish in/under to get to the gravel.
 
And another thing is that a certain amount of mulm is very good for your plants...

Edit: and if little Johnny (or Syphoniera) makes one typo per line, how many errors can fit in a comment?
 
I just get as much as I can. I don't uproot plants, but I do occasionally clean underneath the shipwreck in my tank (I make sure there are no fish in there of course).
 
The bucket being full depends on the size of the bucket & the tank. I fill a 5 gallon bucket twice doing a 55, 65, or 72 gallon, with very few decorations in either.

Use a turkey baster to get into tight spots.
 
Live plants like to have a bit of dirt in the tank as syphoniera has already said, so dont worry about cleaning deep, just use the fat part of the pipe to gently aggitate the surface gravel and lift any obvious poop.

I only "deep clean" the gravel at the front of my tank for the look of clenliness and to keep smaller gravel at the top surface for my cories to play in. The smaller stones tend to slowly go to teh bottom leaving only the larger gravel on the surface.

There are aquarium "vacuum cleaners" you can buy that recycle the water back into the tank. This means you dont end up doing a massive water change everytime you clean.
 
Hi, to ad to all the above posters I use a long length of 15mm ridged green pipe (available cheaply from most LFS) attatched to my syphon pipe. This can be manoeuvred around most things and with a finger ready over the other end to control the flow.......job done :good:
 

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