Vacuuming the gravel

[Ember]

Do you move around all your rocks and plants (if they're fake) everytime you vacuum the gravel?

No matter how careful I try to be around the plants (silk and plastic) I seem to upend them everytime.

Also, whenever I move the rocks and vacuum in the cave and tunnel areas, it seems I get a lot of junk come up. I would hate not getting this stuff up during the cleaning but it just seems like a lot of work to go through every week. Plus it's a lot of stress on the fish when I'm moving everything around and digging around the tank like that. It seems to take me forever to get everything set up just right even if I don't think I'm moving it around that much. I end up adjusting and readjusting over and over.

Please give me cleaning tips. I searched but couldn't seem to find the right info. I know the frequency and amount but need the technique.

Any help you could offer I'd appreciate.
Thanks!

 

[morgan]

Hi, I just syphon around the gravel, I don't move anything . I only have one ornament with a big hole inside and I don't do anything to it. Hope that helps. I am not as experienced as some of the people on here but I have been keeping fish about one year. I have other ornaments and real plants and I just vacuum around them.

 

[cheekeyarab]

I vacuum around the plants, wood etc every week but once a month I remove everything and clean the wood, ornaments and fake plants. Whilst these are out I vacuum all the gravel which results in a good size water change. I also use this opportunity to trim down the real plants. I enjoy repositioning some of the objects to get a totally different look.

My fish handle this really well, although they tend to hang around the vacuum like they have some sort of death wish!!

Hope this helps!!

 

[abstract]

i agree that about once a month is a good time to actually remove everything and clean them

 

[Ember]

Thank you. Sounds good to me

 

[morgan]

Can I ask what happens if you don't occasionally move everything? If you are all doing that there must be a reason. Can you get pockets of gas or something like that?

 

[Bloo]

Well personally I gravel vac as thoroughly as I can around everything on a weekly basis. And then approx every 6-8 weeks I remove rocks etc. and vac underneath them too. That's in my gravel thank though and not sand......

 

[mlee0332]

No you won't get packets of gas, but that festering mulm could cause an ammonia spike.

Here is what I do:
1 week, vac around everything good.

1 week, clean filter

1week vac under everything

1 week clean ornaments (unless needed before hand)

And that is my month. I've heard it's bad to do everything on the same day, b/c if you clean everything, you get rid of all bene bacteria.

 

[morgan]

OK, thanks. I could move the smaller ornaments but I have a huge piece of marble/quartz type rock and it is heavy. Also it has some natural holes in it and my pleco hides either behind it or in the holes. I think I will move everything else but leave that or I will stress it. Plus with the lid off the pleco might jump out if it gets very stressed!

 

[sarah-j]

hiya, im pretty new to this adventure myself however I just gave my tank its first proper clean. What I did was I syphoned tank water into a 3 gallon bucket along with a plant and place all my fishies in there. I then took all my other plants out and rocks and gave them a clean with a bucket of aquarium water for disposal. Cleaned my Gravel (I have an under gravel filter so I also take all my gravel out) its hard work but my tank looks amazing after it. I always keep 6 or more gallons of my tanks water to put back in. I cleaned my filter pads in aquarium water and then i put everything back. did a bit of re-arranging and then turn on filter etc again and add the fishies and off they go none the wiser except for a new adventure searching out their new clean tank.

 

[Ember]

hiya, im pretty new to this adventure myself however I just gave my tank its first proper clean. What I did was I syphoned tank water into a 3 gallon bucket along with a plant and place all my fishies in there. I then took all my other plants out and rocks and gave them a clean with a bucket of aquarium water for disposal. Cleaned my Gravel (I have an under gravel filter so I also take all my gravel out) its hard work but my tank looks amazing after it. I always keep 6 or more gallons of my tanks water to put back in. I cleaned my filter pads in aquarium water and then i put everything back. did a bit of re-arranging and then turn on filter etc again and add the fishies and off they go none the wiser except for a new adventure searching out their new clean tank.

That's a heavy duty cleaning!!!!!

 

[morgan]

That is a very good clean! I won't be doing that because I really dislike catching fish. I had to catch 8 or 9 Mollies for rehoming a few months ago, it took ages (about 50 minutes) !

 

[sarah-j]

yeah I would only do such a big clean once a month or more. I added a new substrate so took the chance to clean everything, it looks amazing. seriously a good clean really make the world of difference. good luck with your cleaning morgan,

 

[Bloo]

Personally I think a good clean a couple of times a year is great - but other than that, it's way too aggressive......
You can by all means have crystal clear water and a clean tank if you maintain good filtration & regular water changes.
I would not recommend such aggressive cleaning once a month.

 

[sarah-j]

yeah s'pose ur right but the debris had built up around my gravel so decided to clean it all as i was putting in new substrate. Now I have done that it might not need doing so often as the substrate is smaller and appears to take less to clean. My father-in-law has had an established tank for about 2 years and frequently cleans it like that and his fish are happy and big!!! spose it depends on the individual as I do have a very clean tank but with all the good stuff in and great filtration, I have a powerhead Aquaclear undergravel filter, a fluval filter and a bubble stone, its on a gentle stream though but my fish love bubble bouncing...