I've been trying to gravel vac the entire substrate during water changes. I'm guessing I'm just not going deep enough and I'm moving on to the next spot before everything gets sucked up at the bottom of the substrate. I'm gonna try to be more thorough and hopefully that will help.
Detritus Worms
- Thread starter nateyj90
- Start date
Well, that'd be good if you can vacuum that much, lol. Better to do some thoroughly each time. The worms won't hurt anything, so no sweat. It depends on the coarseness of your substrate. I used to vacuum all the way down with pool filter sand but that takes some practice not to suck it out. Quick & deep was my coarse sand technique; gravel, just deep until clean. ..& not too close to plant roots.
I have to disagree with Fishorama here, you're not doing it wrong but like I said coarse gravel isn't great for vacuuming, I'm sure her gravel isn't as coarse as yours... also the more you have, the worse it gets.
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What size is your substrate natey & how deep is it? I mostly have coarse sand & fine gravel (ish) type substrates these days ~2 inches deep. But I've had larger gravels before, smaller than pea size but not "fine". The problem is the bigger the gravel, the larger the spaces between each bit & the more "stuff" can fit between. The finer detritus can work its way down, kind of like mixing sand & gravel, the sand eventually ends up on/near the bottom. You might consider a quick pleco poo vac every few days, they do poo a lot, lol.
I admit I don't really vacuum very much anymore. I have lots of plants some with root tabs & a colony of black worms in 1 tank I like. Both tl & I love our bottom feeders! But there's more than 1 way to keep tanks. I have very, very limited experience with African cichlids. Does yours dig into the substrate? Plecos, even fairly large 1s, only suck on the top layer or so IME, not like some bottom fish that do a nose dive into the substrate get all the food, especially live foods!
Natey, if you could please give us just a very brief rundown of your tank each time you make a new post that will help us to help you. I know you're pretty new but please don't expect us to know all the info you've given before in other posts. I sometimes confuse 1 person with another especially if the tanks, fish or problems are similar & I'm not likely to read any & all your posts again, sorry.
I admit I don't really vacuum very much anymore. I have lots of plants some with root tabs & a colony of black worms in 1 tank I like. Both tl & I love our bottom feeders! But there's more than 1 way to keep tanks. I have very, very limited experience with African cichlids. Does yours dig into the substrate? Plecos, even fairly large 1s, only suck on the top layer or so IME, not like some bottom fish that do a nose dive into the substrate get all the food, especially live foods!
Natey, if you could please give us just a very brief rundown of your tank each time you make a new post that will help us to help you. I know you're pretty new but please don't expect us to know all the info you've given before in other posts. I sometimes confuse 1 person with another especially if the tanks, fish or problems are similar & I'm not likely to read any & all your posts again, sorry.
Oh, OK, now I get you tl. You know we often (almost anyway 
) agree on many things, lol, including our love of loaches & catfish. It's just sometimes there are more than 1 or even 2 ways experiences can differ. It's all good!
) agree on many things, lol, including our love of loaches & catfish. It's just sometimes there are more than 1 or even 2 ways experiences can differ. It's all good!Oh yeah, there's always the even bigger than, to me, "giant" pea gravel. I never think that really big size gravel is even an aquaria possibility...but it could be...we never know what someone might try, lol. Just when we think we've seen it all...that can be what makes forums so interesting, ha! & so frustrating at times.
I believe it's only a 5 minute edit time...I've been timed out many times.
I believe it's only a 5 minute edit time...I've been timed out many times.
the more gravel we have it means more worm will appear!? and here i need more gravel for my tank
i was just about to continue a thread i did about these worms because i just found out that i have a more since the first time i saw it, which was only one, now i got to see like 3.
Is thoroughly cleaning the gravel going to rid them forever? some time ago my tank got a serious case of algae and i had to do a massive water change and a thorough clean up to gravel: i took about 50% of my gravel and washed it because of how dirty it was. After this i basically set the tank from start so I even had to cycle it for a few days before putting my fish back in the tank. Now the tank does not grow algae as quickly as it used to.
I've done some research after seeing these worms again in my tank but i found that they are harmless and actually help cleaning and maintenance? i'd still like my tank worm free..
I also have noticed that they only show up during night, when i turn on the light they swim/float by but in a minute they just disappear and if i want to see them floating again i have to wait some time with the lights off before turning them on.
