That Was Stressful

[rebrn]

So it was time to do my first water change in my tanks with my fish in (did the 55 a couple of days early and the 12 a day late just to get all the tanks on the same schedule), the 5 and 12 gallon tanks were not a problem. The Betta (5 gallon) hid, and the Rasboras (12 gallon) all ran away when the saw the gravel vac. But the 55 gallon, now that was interesting. As soon as I opened the tank lid all the Zebra Danio came swimming to the top like little sharks looking for food. I figured they would run when I put the gravel vac in, but no luck, the started swimming all over it, up into the tube, luckily I hadn't started the syphon yet. Anyway got them all out of the tube then started the process, they kept swimming up to my hand and nibbling on me! Man I thought I got little fish not sharks. Then the Cherry Barbs got in on the act. It would have been quite funny if I wasn't paranoid about sucking one of them up in to the vac. Anyway, I got through it and no harmed fish . Well anyway, now that it is over I can laugh about it.

 

[AdamM]

yeah, every time i put my hand in the tank, whether it be to clean, re-arrange something, prune plants, or even to adjust the filter output, all my zebras start nibbling on me!

 

[OldMan47]

If you were doing a good deep vac on the gravel, I bet some of them even tried to eat the dirt as it went by in the tube. When using a gravel vac on gravel, plunge it right down into the substrate and let it really stir that stuff up well. It gives a nice scrubbing action that way.

 

[rebrn]

Well actually I have sand, so I just kind of swirl the vac over the area and it sucks it all up, the dirt just sits on top with the sand. But I think next week I am going to try removing the tube and just use the hose, it will probably take longer but I will have better control over where it goes. Plus it will be easier to get into the tighter spaces (i.e under the decorations). But I did use a bamboo skewer (food safe ones) to stir the sand up, that was fun too, the barbs just loved that stick

 

[erk628]

Well actually I have sand, so I just kind of swirl the vac over the area and it sucks it all up, the dirt just sits on top with the sand. But I think next week I am going to try removing the tube and just use the hose, it will probably take longer but I will have better control over where it goes. Plus it will be easier to get into the tighter spaces (i.e under the decorations). But I did use a bamboo skewer (food safe ones) to stir the sand up, that was fun too, the barbs just loved that stick

Thats exactly what you wanna so is take the tube off and use the hose Ive been using just the hose for years and it works great more suction power to. Try cleaning a tank with a full grown oscar in it and having to keep and eye on him or he'll come up and nip your arm now that hurts.

 

[JustFrozen]

great thread OP . i'm going from an empty tank (currently cycling) to a full stocked one with sand, so this clears up a lot of questions i have about it.

also a lot of entertaining comments

 

[fishnovice]

So it was time to do my first water change in my tanks with my fish in (did the 55 a couple of days early and the 12 a day late just to get all the tanks on the same schedule), the 5 and 12 gallon tanks were not a problem. The Betta (5 gallon) hid, and the Rasboras (12 gallon) all ran away when the saw the gravel vac. But the 55 gallon, now that was interesting. As soon as I opened the tank lid all the Zebra Danio came swimming to the top like little sharks looking for food. I figured they would run when I put the gravel vac in, but no luck, the started swimming all over it, up into the tube, luckily I hadn't started the syphon yet. Anyway got them all out of the tube then started the process, they kept swimming up to my hand and nibbling on me! Man I thought I got little fish not sharks. Then the Cherry Barbs got in on the act. It would have been quite funny if I wasn't paranoid about sucking one of them up in to the vac. Anyway, I got through it and no harmed fish . Well anyway, now that it is over I can laugh about it.

If you are worried about sucking up small fish or fry by accident, put some mesh over vaccum end attached by rubber band. Someone on this forum also had an excellent post for cleaning sand which basically involved attaching a plastic knife to tube, sticking out some 2cms below tube open end to stir up sand and suck up debris