Crap In The Substrate

[sacramonel]

This is more of a vent to be honest with everyone. So I apologize ahead of time . . . I have a 45 gallon planted tank in which I do bi-monthly water changes. I also clean the gravel during this same time. But I just can not keep it clean!!! I must siphon out 25 gallons worth each time trying to get all the gunk out, but it just keeps accumulating. Does anyone know what else I can do. I'm going crazy. I actually siphoned out 10 gallons every day so far this week!!

 

[pseud]

bi-monthly means once every two months?

Solution: Do weekly water changes.

 

[George Farmer]

As pseud suggests do you mean once every two months or twice per month?

What filtration and fish do you have?

 

[netcode]

even after weekly water changes I find there is sitll quite a bit of crap on the bottom. You will never get it all out and if your concerned just stir up the gravel real good like with the syphon.

I don't think there is much else you can do besides really moving the gravel around when your doing the water change.

 

[pseud]

even after weekly water changes I find there is sitll quite a bit of crap on the bottom. You will never get it all out and if your concerned just stir up the gravel real good like with the syphon.

I don't think there is much else you can do besides really moving the gravel around when your doing the water change.

I would discourage anyone from doing this. Stirring up gravel & stirring up crap will disturb nitrobacter bacteria and nitrosomona bacteria, (bacterias that convert ammonia to nitrites, and nitrites to nitrates), and also expose ammonia into the water column from the fish waste. Can possibly lead to Green Water and/or other problems.

 

[netcode]

I do it all the time and my levels of ammonia and nitrites are both 0

from what i recall if you have sand and don't stir it up you will potentiall create pockets of built up gasses which are quite toxic and deadly.

 

[pseud]

Do you stir up two months worth of crap at a time though?

What I'm saying makes sense on paper, and in practice -- I've had it happen to me in the past. There's many variables to it, and sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not.

Oh, and there's a difference between stirring substrate up and poking a a chopstick in.

 

[voo]

I would discourage anyone from doing this. Stirring up gravel & stirring up crap will disturb nitrobacter bacteria and nitrosomona bacteria, (bacterias that convert ammonia to nitrites, and nitrites to nitrates), and also expose ammonia into the water column from the fish waste. Can possibly lead to Green Water and/or other problems.

Does this mean my bristlenose plecs that are constantly stirring up the bottom are actually causing more ammonia?

 

[Anita]

Weekly water change, approx 10 gallons. Syphoning the gravel every time will get on top of it. What fish do you keep?

If they are large fish, messy eaters, producing a lot of waste, you may have to do this twice weekly.

Anita

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh could be the fish you have. I used to siphon tons of gunk out of the gravel in my big tank until I re-homed the pleco, now there is hardly any.

Sam

 

[sacramonel]

Wow, lots of posts. Sorry not to be able to reply until today. In bi-monthly - I mean twice a month. And as for fish I have 5 rasboras, 4 black tetras, 2 guppies, 2 cat fish. I don't think its the fish causing gunk.

 

[cujoho78]

Hi. Perhaps in addition to the other suggestions you could cut back on feeding for a little while until you can get the substrate cleaned up. Less feeding will cause less waste from the fish. Just keep up with the water changes and vacuuming and you'll get it eventually. Good luck.