gravel vac

[katykaye]

Hi

I just used a gravel vac for the first time, and I have to admit that I did not find it easy to use!! Is there a technique? I got the suction going then I moved the vac around in the gravel to clean it, but, although I got lots of revolting dirty water and debris out, I seemed to leave a lot behind?

Any thoughts or tips please?

Kaye
(newbie with 2 goldfish in 15g tank)

 

[TipStylez]

dont move the vac around alot, push it into the gravle then pull it up slowly, then move to the next area and repeat, not stur the whole thing up.

 

[nursie]

You do have to move kinda slow. Push into your gravel, let it pull it up some and suck up the crud, and slowly lift up and let it put the gravel back. Not sure how long you have had your tank going without vaccuming, but it may just be an accumulation of crud becasue goldfish are messy. Big poos. Once you get a regular vaccuming schedule it won't be as bad. That said...you won't get it all out when you vaccum.
I sit and look and my tank and think it gets cruddy fast I usually end up vaccuming every 5 to 6 days instead of a full week. I have plants and I tend to over feed too though.

 

[Kissofthegorami]

Do you NEED to vacuum? I have a planted tank and there is not one spot open to vacuum. I have never vacuumed gravel in my life and my ammonia and nitrites are always at 0.

 

[valleyvampiress]

Do you NEED to vacuum? I have a planted tank and there is not one spot open to vacuum. I have never vacuumed gravel in my life and my ammonia and nitrites are always at 0.

If you have plants, you don't need to vacuum, and in fact shouldn't because the plants use all the fish droppings for nutrients. Besides that, disturbing the roots of your plants might not be such a good idea. If you don't have plants however, you should vacuum atleast once and a while because all those droppings will raise the ammonia level.

 

[cohazard]

I vaccum the open spots of my planted tank because I worry about the Dissolved Organic Content (DOC) of the water.

I'll be honest, I don't know much about DOC, but I read about it somewhere on these forums, so I try to vaccum as much as I can in all my tanks without disturbing the planted areas.

 

[Yo_Loach]

I have a quick question....dont mean to steal the glory, but whats your advice about cleaning sand...should I stir it up with my hand and suck it out? or just leave it and let the filter take care of it

 

[TorturedSOUL]

I vaccum my sand by cleaning up all the obvious crap that is on top of the sand. Then I stick it in the sand, sucking it up into the funnel then pinching the hose, the sand drops and the crap floats I then pull the vac away from the sand and suck all the crap up.

Sometimes I just pinch the hose and stir the sand up and then suck up all the crap.