Vaccing Gravel

Clarousel · Aug 30, 2011

This just hit me since I'm cycling my 2nd tank with fish.

Been doing 40-50% changes daily (today's the 3rd day cycling) and I'm siphoning the same way I do with my other tank. I use the larger end to push around the gravel and suck out the bits of poop/dirt/uneaten food. Is this the right way to clean the gravel? When I was at the hospital I saw the guy siphoning with a tube and he would suck up the sand and drop it back down by stopping the water flow.

Also, I try to clean the gravel every time I do a water change. Is it fine to do so?

So many new questions pop into my head as time goes by!

Caprichoso · Aug 31, 2011

You really only need to do a gravel vac once a week. The main objective is to try to get the vac all the way to the bottom of the gravel and to suck up all the debris in the gravel without disturbing any rooted plants. WIth a planted tank, gravel vac is done carefully, minimally or not even at all if there's little to no substrate exposed. You also want to make sure that you are not creating a debris cloud in the water when doing the vac. As long as you're doing this, you will be vacuuming successfully I would think.

Clarousel · Aug 31, 2011

Oh! Okay so once a week gravel vac and the rest of the water changes I just have to siphon out the water am I right?

How do I prevent a debris cloud from occuring?

Caprichoso · Aug 31, 2011

Clarousel said:
Oh! Okay so once a week gravel vac and the rest of the water changes I just have to siphon out the water am I right?

How do I prevent a debris cloud from occuring?

Yes. You will remove some water of course when you gravel vac but usually this will amount to about 10% from my experience. If you are doing daily water changes there is no need to vac every day. You can prevent a debris cloud by allowing the vac to fully suck up the debris and let it flow down the hose before you lift it and move it to a new area of the substrate. It's sort of hard to explain but you just want to move slowly around the substrate. That will usually prevent making a big cloudy mess in the tank. Sometimes it can take a few vac's to get it right but in time you will become an expert at it :good:

Clarousel · Aug 31, 2011

I see! Okay I get what you mean. I always tried to improve (there's no such word whoops) but ended up doing pretty much the same thing

Will try it out tomorrow with my main tank, it always seems to be dirty :angry:

Mowbz · Aug 31, 2011

I do the same thing as the guy you saw, and its a bit different for sand.

Not too relevant until/if you switch to sand but;

Sand is much lighter, and depending on the vac you use, it does tend to pick up the sand. This ends up sat in the bucket your siphoning in to, and to put it back in creates clouds normally, so its easier to stick your finger over the end and stop the flow, and the sand will slowly (it is VERY slow) fall back down the pipe to the tank floor.

The trick with both so you dont pick up too much is to make quick little circles 2-5mm off the bottom. It creates a little vortex of water that lifts the dirt frm the sand without too much substrate going "up the spout" with it

Hope this helps

Clarousel · Aug 31, 2011

When you say 2-5mm you mean the depth?

I'm confused now. Definitely some of the gravel will go up the siphon when you're getting the debris out right? So it'll end up dropping back down...

My siphon has a removable cover thing that prevents large gravel or small fish from entering the siphon. It tends to prevent poop from getting sucked up so I'm thinking of removing it when doing gravel vac. Or should I leave it on

Caprichoso · Aug 31, 2011

Clarousel said:
When you say 2-5mm you mean the depth? I'm confused now. Definitely some of the gravel will go up the siphon when you're getting the debris out right? So it'll end up dropping back down...

My siphon has a removable cover thing that prevents large gravel or small fish from entering the siphon. It tends to prevent poop from getting sucked up so I'm thinking of removing it when doing gravel vac. Or should I leave it on

This only applies with sand, so nothing to worry about for you because you have gravel. Leave the cover on. It should be able to work with the cover on and still do a good job of sucking up waste. Sometimes plant matter will get stuck but overall it should do the job. That being said, my Python vac has no cover but it also doesn't suck up the gravel. You could always give it a go and try it out.