Gravel Cleaning

M

MVandenberk

AC Members
Dec 11, 2006
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Ontario, Canada
How often is it recommended that you clean your gravel? With each water change, every other, etc?

My tank is in the middle of cylcing, by the looks of it, on the tail end possibly. I've been doing water changes as often as I can (every other day) to keep the ammonia from climbing.

I am just wondering If I should be cleaning the gravel each time or not and whether people move their decorations to get at gravel in caved areas and such?
 
i vacuum the gravel in all my tanks on a weekly basis, concurrent with water changes. can you say "Python" ?
 
I have a normal gravel cleaner, but pipes running up to my aquarium for drain and fill, it's essentially like a python without the automation from the tap. As I do not have the necessary tap to attach the python to.

Do you move decorations? or just vacuum the best you can around them?
 
I gravel vac every month with the monlthy water changes of 25 to 30% its recommended by the hard core dudes to do it weekly or even twice a week but I've never had a problem with my water params ever with the monthly cleanings, depends on your fish though, if you have oscars or piranhas or something that gives off huge amounts of waste/bioloads then you might be better off with weekly or bi weekly maint
 
I do mine once a month as well, unless there is noticable debris, which there usually isn't.
 
I do my water changes at least once a week once established, it's more of just whether i'm doing more harm by removing it from the gravel. If not, at least it gives me something to do while I drain the water :)

I also have a growing issue with diatoms. Tried scubbing them off, then read a thread stating it was a waste of time, being they grow back next day.

The diatoms usually dissapear after the tank is fully cycled or is there other tips for removing them. Other than ottos.
 
VectorZulu said:
I gravel vac every month with the monlthy water changes of 25 to 30% its recommended by the hard core dudes to do it weekly or even twice a week but I've never had a problem with my water params ever with the monthly cleanings, depends on your fish though, if you have oscars or piranhas or something that gives off huge amounts of waste/bioloads then you might be better off with weekly or bi weekly maint
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I agree with this post. If you have really good filtration, and a tank that is lightly stocked, you can do a thourough cleaning and water change once a month and be just fine. Water changes every week is overkill unless you are overstocked, have messy fish like was mentioned, or are keeping Discus.
 
If you use sand you never really have to gravel vac as the waste and debris sit right on top, but I do weekly 50 percent wc reguardless.
 
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I gravel vac every time I do a water change (weekly) just because it's easiest to siphon the water out with the vac. I don't vacuum all the gravel, just pick an area and vac until the water is clear, and stop when I've vacced out around 20% of the water. Then next time I pick a different area. I enjoy using the gravel vac. I like watching the muck leaving my tank. I also have a tank with sand and I do vac it, it may not be necessary but I have to run the vac over the surface where all the junk collects anyway and like I said, it's the easiest way to do a water change, so I stir the sand around just to loosen it up a little and keep it looking fresh while I'm down there.
 
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