Gravel Is So Dirty!

[chigwellhammer]

Not sure what to do my gravel is filthy if you go to touch it loads #105### wips up and around i did buy one of them cheap grave cleaner vacs from ebay but i dont seem to be getting on with it very well..

Any help and advice please?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Do you stick it right down deep in the gravel until you touch the bottom of the tank? Thats what I do. I do that thoroughly about once per week over the entire bottom of the aquarium. I do tend not to do directly around plants though as it seems to do great for the growth of my plants.

 

[Moby-Krib]

Not sure what to do my gravel is filthy if you go to touch it loads #105### wips up and around i did buy one of them cheap grave cleaner vacs from ebay but i dont seem to be getting on with it very well..

Any help and advice please?

If it's gravel you need to plunge the vac into it over and over as you move along, The waste settles deep into the small spaces between the rocks.
This is one of the main reasons I switched to sand. No voids for the waste to get into and a quick swishing motion pulls it up to be expelled out the siphon.

 

[BlueDragon]

Yeah, same here. You need to dig the syphon right down into the gravel once you've started it off and then what I do is wiggle it about untill the water is coming up clean. Then I move along, repeat, untill the whole bottom is done. Can take a little time, but it's the only real way of doing it... at least that I know of and anything short of taking apart the whole tank and rinsing the gravel seperate every week : /

But I'm going to change to sand as well shortly. I didn't really want sand at first 'cause with me eventually doing a river theme I wanted gravel to mimic the river where I live. But to be honest I'm starting to see how gravel might not be a very healthy option in the long run.

 

[Akasha72]

I'm currently in the process of removing the sand and going back to gravel - so much easier to clean. I'm sick of sand everywhere!

As the others have said you need to dig that syphon right in to the gravel to the bottom of the tank. Do that once a week at the very least and it'll be clean in no time

 

[willowstwin]

See, so long as you do what everyone above says (push the gravel vac INTO the gravel to suck up the poo, repeat until clean) then it's relatively little effort.

I had sand in 1 tank and I had 2 problems - 1) I sucked up sand every time I cleaned - ended up me having to fill a bottle with clean sand to top it up every month) and 2) I had places under ornaments that went black and smelled SO SO bad! I don't know how to relieve that without releasing it into the water and the fish getting sick. So I stick with gravel (which means no corys for me )

So yeah, plunge the gravel vac into the gravel and you will see it sucking up the poop. Lift the vac up a little to drop the gravel (or you will get a block)

Try THIS VIDEO but skip to about 2:15 to see what we mean

 

[chigwellhammer]

Cheers guys i will give a go if im honest i was just going round tapping iti on the top lol!

 

[Akasha72]

which means no corys for me

Why not? You can still keep cories on gravel. It has to be a soft smooth pebble type gravel though. Mine are on Marina black pebbles and are fine. It means they can't sift the sand through their gills but they're still healthy and fat so that's not a real issue

 

[alistairw]

which means no corys for me

Why not? You can still keep cories on gravel. It has to be a soft smooth pebble type gravel though. Mine are on Marina black pebbles and are fine. It means they can't sift the sand through their gills but they're still healthy and fat so that's not a real issue

I agree. I have some cory's scuttling about on my gravel too. It's a black, smoothly rounded type gravel and they keep it reasonably clean! I realised once I bought the cory's that I may have done the wrong thing and might damage their tentacles, however they are perfectly happy and don't stop!!


I have an electric gravel cleaner that filters the water through a cotton bag, so I run that through the gravel once a week and if seems to do the job perfectly!

Al

 

[willowstwin]

I've never been able to find smooth enough gravel