How do we clean an undergravel filter?

[Anne L.]

This thread is further to the thread I opened about my son's 2.5 gal tank. It's not quite cycled yet, but once it is, how do we clean the gravel and undergravel filter? The fish are doing fine, although the little timid one still doesn't seem to eat much.

Our 10 gal. tank has a HOB filter and we use the siphon tube to clean the gravel, so I don't know how to clean his little tank.

Do you just suction the gravel as usual, or is there something else we need to do? I would imagine some nasty stuff can collect under that filter after a while and you'd need to take the fish out and clean that.

So, how to do this, and how often?

 

[themadblimper]

Just vacuum the gravel occasionally as you normally would, gently if possible. Dont ever disassemble the tank and clean the gravel, you'd kill off all the good bacteria.

 

[Anne L.]

That's what I thought, but my son wanted to know for sure. He's really becoming a good little fishkeeper, and wants to make sure that his pets are being taken care of properly.

Thanks!

 

[mvigor]

While I wouldn't take apart the tank and scrub it down, I would definitely give it a very thorough cleaning once in a while to clear out the mulm that WILL accumulate under that UGF plate under your gravel in that little 2.5 gallon tank.

Put the fish in a bucket with some tank water and let the gravel vacuum suck the tank dry. Fill it a quarter of the way up again with clean room temperature dechlorinated water, swish it around and then let the gravel vac empty until it sucks air again. Do this several times until the mess you get from the gravel isn't all that dirty.

As long as you're using dechlorinated water, you shouldn't be killing your bacteria off even if you rinse quite a few times.

I'd say that you'd be safe to do this every 6 months or so as an addition to your regular tank maintenance schedule.

 

[Anne L.]

Would you take out the plastic plates from the filter before you do this, mvigor, or just leave everything in place? I assume you would leave it in place so as to not clean all of the bacteria out.

 

[mvigor]

No, I wouldn't. It's too much work getting every last piece of gravel out from under the plates. The minute you pull them up off the bottom of the tank, you have to remove every last pebble of gravel to put them back right.

I would just leave all the gravel and the UGF and a little water and kind of shake things up.

 

[Anne L.]

Cool, thanks.