Removing Ornaments When Doing Water Change..

[trikidy]

Hi this is my tank

http/www.flickr.com/photos/trikidy/5537597903/

And as you can see i have a huge ship ornanment, several fake plants at the back and sides, only have 4 real plants at the front.

When i do a water change do i have to take all of the ornamnets out?
My friend said today I should but i haven't been.

It would be hard to take the ship out and back in so should i? I mean i don't mind the extra hassle if it wil make my aquarium cleaner.

Thanks for your help

 

[MrCrabs]

Hi this is my tank

http/www.flickr.com/photos/trikidy/5537597903/

And as you can see i have a huge ship ornanment, several fake plants at the back and sides, only have 4 real plants at the front.

When i do a water change do i have to take all of the ornamnets out?
My friend said today I should but i haven't been.

It would be hard to take the ship out and back in so should i? I mean i don't mind the extra hassle if it wil make my aquarium cleaner.

Thanks for your help

In my experience unless the ornaments are growing something undesireable, alge etc. I just gravel vac around them. The way I see it the faster I can get the gravel cleaned and part of the water changed and get things back to normal the less stressed out my fish tend to be. I have a couple big ornaments as well and I may scoot them a little to get under them but I do not take them out completely.

Hope this is accurate and helpful.

~MrCrabs

 

[trikidy]

Well yes that helps by telling me you don't, but what about other people?

MrCrabs can you see spongbob and patrick in my tank...

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm the same; I mostly just hoover round them, but maybe once a month or so, I'll lift it up slightly or move it sideways and go quickly under it.

Then, maybe once every 6 months to a year, depending on how heavily stocked your tank is, take it all the way out and do a really good clean underneath it, give the ornament a quick rinse or scrub under the hot tap (or in old tank water) before you put it back in. Do one piece at a time.

 

[MrCrabs]

Well yes that helps by telling me you don't, but what about other people?

MrCrabs can you see spongbob and patrick in my tank...

Yes, I have the same spongebob in my tank lol, my 5 year old wouldnt leave me alone till I put it in there.

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

+1 i kinda lift slightly every month and give a good clean under my bogwood, week to week i just go around them

 

[starscream]

The smaller decorations in my tank I kinda wiggle them i kinda clean under them but the bigger one I don't worry to much about them!

 

[LellowFish]

I do the same as everyone else. Weekly water changes, I just go around the wood and ornaments but at least once a month I move them and vacuum underneath them.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm the same; I mostly just hoover round them, but maybe once a month or so, I'll lift it up slightly or move it sideways and go quickly under it.

Then, maybe once every 6 months to a year, depending on how heavily stocked your tank is, take it all the way out and do a really good clean underneath it, give the ornament a quick rinse or scrub under the hot tap (or in old tank water) before you put it back in. Do one piece at a time.

my behavior is the same as fluttermoth's
WD

 

[trikidy]

Good input guys!

 

[moochy13]

surely this all depends on how much of the gravel you CAN get to ?

the tank and decor in question, if youre moving the small stones and bridge thing at the front, and your tank looks as big as i think it is, the plants and ship seem to be occupying a large % of the floor, meaning a large % of gravel not being cleaned.

its a bit hard to tell from that picture how big the tank is and how much open floorspace there is you can easily gravel, but to take it to extremes if i had a tank where 95% of the gravel was under decor and i didnt/couldnt vac it, it would be very dirty. if i have a 6ft long take with just a cocunut cave in, i can gravel vac everywhere pretty much.