NO substrate vacuming!!!!

[pongo]

lol, just to fuel the fire. even in anaerobic bed the ammonia and other nitrogenous products gets broken down into inert substances over time.

been about a million years since I did the research on it, but you can look it up.

however, I'm not saying leave it alone, just be aware of all variables and not get focused, caught up on one w/o looking at the complete equation ( with all of it's multitude of variables).......runs away.

 

[Sploke]

I'm in the minority here, but I vacuum very few of my tanks. The planted ones have decent amount of substrate, the unplanted ones have minimal substrate or barebottom and good flow. I use a constant drip system that does about a 15% water change daily on the four main FW tanks, so unless I see pockets of debris building up, they don't get vacuumed.

 

[archer772]

I dont vacumm the gravel in my planted tank but I do stir the gavel in areas I can get to when I do WC's to try to get some of the crap out. I have mainly stem plants and they grow like weeds and I have probably hundreds of MTS in the 120. I dont mind small amounts of algea in my tank but when it starts getting bad I work it over good and that hasnt happened since I started dosing Nitrogen. Here are some pics of my tank from about 5-6 weeks ago, the plants got out of hand shortly after these pics and I had to remove alot of them and I also just had a pair of angels spawn yesterday in there.

I never tell anybody to do what I do I only tell them what I do and I tell them that most people dont do what I do and let them decide from there.

 

[Davy]

thats a gorgeous tank!!





at any rate, heres what i got to say: just do it.

although i never had too before i planted my tank, i had so much circulation and filtration it all got sucked up but i still did it...

 

[blue2fyre]

2)
So that's what happened to my shrimp! I never vacuumed my 5 galon because I was worried about sucking up baby shrimp and I thought all the stuff was good for plants. But then a few months ago my shrimp population just started dropping.

To update on this. Since I have started vacuuming weekly I have not had a single shrimp death and they are now breeding again. My water parameters were always VERY good but my shrimp were dying for unknown reasons. There are somethings we don't measure for that can be very bad.

 

[iamvictor2k]

To update on this. Since I have started vacuuming weekly I have not had a single shrimp death and they are now breeding again. My water parameters were always VERY good but my shrimp were dying for unknown reasons. There are somethings we don't measure for that can be very bad.

i can undersant the affect on shrimp. i only have feeder shrimp so it dosent matter in that aspect. if they dye i pick them out throw them in the tank and the fish gladly eat them. the shrimp stay at the bottom of the tank so they would be directly affected by stiring up un broken down substances leading to heavy intake= stress, sickness, death.

 

[blue2fyre]

Well with that logic what about bottom dwellers?

 

[NegativeLogic]

i can undersant the affect on shrimp. i only have feeder shrimp so it dosent matter in that aspect. if they dye i pick them out throw them in the tank and the fish gladly eat them. the shrimp stay at the bottom of the tank so they would be directly affected by stiring up un broken down substances leading to heavy intake= stress, sickness, death.

I'm pretty sure the effect on shrimp isn't about proximity to the substrate, it's about TDS - total dissolved solids in the water column.

I really suggest you read up on those and their effects before deciding that your "levels" are ok when determining that you don't need to do any substrate maintenance.

I tend to lightly vaccum the exposed areas of the substrate about once a month, and I also make sure to stir it up occasionally to make sure there aren't any gas pockets developing.

 

[J double R]

I'm in the minority here, but I vacuum very few of my tanks. The planted ones have decent amount of substrate, the unplanted ones have minimal substrate or barebottom and good flow. I use a constant drip system that does about a 15% water change daily on the four main FW tanks, so unless I see pockets of debris building up, they don't get vacuumed.

minus the constant drip system, likewise. I keep a steady wc regimen, and I don't touch the gravel in my heavily planted tanks unless there is detritus built up, which there hardly EVER is. That said..

i have alge but i never took any precations agenst it so its a given to have it. any questions or comments are welcomed or input.

I have taken 0 precautions against algae... and I have none whatsoever, even with the high light in my tank and lack of CO2 (for now). Recommend checking your nutrient levels, because overgrowth of algae is not "a given".

 

[fishorama]

I think if you can get the flow so most all the crap gets sucked up by the filters you don't need to vac or only rarely. I always end up with stuff trapped in stem plants or someplace else & don't like my bottomfeeders to have to nose through detritus. I also tend toward well stocked, well fed tanks so lots of poo.

I'd also clean my filters more than I do, detritus breaks down into the water column, raising TDS as others have said. Just as easy for me to vac as water change more. I don't see being able to automate WCs any time soon, tanks all over, but I'm sure it'd be nice.