water changes

[toothbrush86]

do any of you just vaccuum around the decorations or do you move them aside and then put then back?

[Cearbhaill]

Sometimes :D

Some weeks I take out everything easily removed and do a whole lot of vacuuming, scrape down every centimeter of glass, and run a diatom filter- other weeks I don't. If I'm feeling really rushed I might just quickly remove and replace the water :eek: .

I'd say that I do a totally complete whole tank cleaning once a month in my planted tank- more often with the Goldfish tank.
Regardless of what else I do I always change a portion of the water weekly though. I also keep prefilters in each tank and do rinse them out several times a week.

I think each tank has its own personality regarding upkeep- it depends on many factors- most especially fish load, feeding habits, and presence of live plants.

[SayersWeb]

If you don't move everything and vacuum every so often the gravel underneath can become problematic.

[Gulp]

I usually just vaccum around the edges of the larger rocks. I put them in first, so they are not sitting on any gravel. If you have a lot of things sitting on top of a layer of gravel, I would definitely clean under them once in a while.

[Lauren]

I was under the impression that it wasn't good to completely vacuum the gravel.

[bayoupr]

I Vac my gravel weekly with my water change. There are some who say by doing it so much I'm destroying benifical bactera. Well my answer is if you have good filtration then where is the problem.

[RTR]

Vacuuming the gravel is a good and positive thing in unplanted tanks. In planted tanks, particularly heavily planted tanks, it is not needed and distruptive to the plants if done frequently - but it is still done periodically when dividing and replanting.

Anthing said to the contrary I would consider myth.

[travelinman1969]

I agree with bayoupr. If you have a good bio filter, vacuum it all. Unless you have plants. I vacuum all the gravel except for about 3 inches from the base of any plant. I move all fixtures and get deep in the gravel. Depends on your fish and load. I have big fish and they are messy, so I have to everytime. My platty tank I vacuum half one time and the other half the next time. Same with my goldfish tank. Depends of fish load and filtration, and how trusting you are that your filter is doing the bio thing right.

[as40]

My tank is fairly heavily planted. You can't find a space 3 inches away from the base of a plant that wouldn't be touching another one. I also have fairly small fish, with one exception, that are never fed live foods. I have an excessive amount of filtration on the tank (the contents of the tank in theory cycle through the filter 10 times per hour). I also have hordes of clean-up crew members. So in the time that it's been set up, I've only done water changes and rinsed the filter sponges. I've not had any fatalities either, with the exception of two clown loaches from ich. I guess with your tank, toothbrush86, it's like the others said; depends on if you're using live plants or not, and how heavily planted.

If it isn't planted, I'd agree with bayoupr and say vacuum away. With non-planted setups I used to vacuum the heck out of them and it seemed to do wonders for the overall water quality and health of the fish.

Good luck and happy holidays!