Fish Poop In Gravel

[bassdawg]

Hi , My tank was only up for a week an when I stir up the gravel all this stuff floats in the water ,at first I thought it was food but it looks like poop . Is this normal ? Thanks for your info .

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

Yes, it is normal for fish to poop in the gravel.

 

[bassdawg]

 Thanks at least I now don't have to worry about it . If I vacuum once a month is that enough ? Thanks for your help .

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

 Thanks at least I now don't have to worry about it . If I vacuum once a month is that enough ? Thanks for your help .

You shouldnt vacuum out the gravel too much, because thats where bacteria grows. You should vacuum out 25% of the water weekly. 

 

[bassdawg]

So it don't hurt to leave all the poop in the gravel ? My water all test 0 .

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks at least I now don't have to worry about it . If I vacuum once a month is that enough ? Thanks for your help .

You shouldnt vacuum out the gravel too much, because thats where bacteria grows. You should vacuum out 25% of the water weekly.

  

So it don't hurt to leave all the poop in the gravel ? My water all test 0 .

The beneficial bacteria live on all surfaces. And you should gravel vac with each water change, weekly. The exception is in a planted tank, the poop can be a benefit to rooted plants, but if you don't have rooted plants, then you will want to gravel vac. And even if you do, you want to still gravel vac around the tank in the areas that do not have plants.

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

Sorry for the wrong information, I was told otherwise

 

[eaglesaquarium]

There are quite a lot of myths floating around (pun intended).  It is easy to be fooled by someone who has been doing it for a longer time, and has experience, but just because they have more experience doesn't mean they have more information.  Lots of 'old wives' tales.  Just like the LFS advice you get sometimes about just setting up the tank and let it run for 2 weeks, then add fish.   That does nothing, but test your equipment, not build up bacteria.
 
 
Also, you'll be told to change the filter media every two weeks to a month (by the manufacturer), but its just not right.  Doing that actually removes a large amount of bacteria.  Instead, you'll want to rinse the filter media you have (in old tank water) to keep it 'free flowing' and not clogging up.  But, not replace it all at once, if at all possible, but to do that in stages whenever possible - as you are suggesting in the substrate.
 
 
 
There is an area where these ideas overlap, and that's with the old 'undergravel' filters.  There the substrate actually is a filter medium, and you need to keep it well vacuumed, so that it remains porous (its easy for it to become clogged) but at the same time, you don't want to vacuum too much at a time, and this might be where you got your information from.  

 

[bassdawg]

Thanks to all , The info is a big help .

 

[Byron]

I concur with what eaglesaquarium has posted, both times.  Without live plants, keep the substrate clean by vacuuming into it with every water change.  And I would increase the water change volume up to no less than 1/3 and preferably 1/2 the tank volume, every week.  I'll add a bit of explanation if I may, so you will perhaps better understand why we are advising what we are.
 
You want to remove much of the organics (fish excrement and other biological matter like uneaten fish food, dead plant matter if you had live plants, etc) from the substrate in non-plant tanks because the breakdown by bacteria of this organic matter can cause nitrates to rise, pH to lower as the water acidifies, increase CO2, and add dissolved organics to the water.  The GH and especially KH of the source water will work to buffer the pH aspect, but not the breakdown and nitrates.  And nitrates should be as low as possible, certainly below 20 ppm and preferably no more than 10 ppm.  In planted tanks this is usually easy to achieve, but in non-planted tanks it is the water change and removal of the substrate organics that keeps nitrates under control.
 
It is very true what another member said about bacteria in the substrate.  In addition to the nitrifying bacteria that most think of, there is a host of other bacteria performing many functions that keep an aquarium healthy.  However, all bacteria are very sticky and they live attached to surfaces...every surface covered by water in an aquarium will be a biofilm on which live millions of various bacteria.  It is not easy to remove these, and certainly water changes and substrate vacuuming will not do this, so there is no real "downside" to these.  Of course, this assumes other things are equal, such as fish load to the volume, compatible fish, water parameters reasonably similar between source and tank, and so forth.
 
Byron.

 

[Gruntle]

So it don't hurt to leave all the poop in the gravel ? My water all test 0 .

Just a hint for you, if you're using the API kit with 2 bottles for the nitrate test, you have to shake the living daylights out of the second bottle to get a reading. You should be getting something more than zero.