Gravel washing To do or not to?

[Prediscus23]

I have a 29 gal tank with 3 glowlight tetras and 3 lamp eye tetras that I am using to cycle this new tank.

My question is, When should I start gravel washing? My ammonia levels are just now starting to rise and I did a PWC (33.3%) and they did not go down....

Should I gravel wash and then do another PWC or will that effect my BB adversely?

 

[Prediscus23]

No help?...

 

[Chrissa]

Is this a brand new set up?

 

[Prediscus23]

About a week and a half old

 

[Mrc8858]

Only vacuum the gravel.. as long as you keep up with routine maintenance then you really shouldn't ever need to wash your gravel. Also after you tank has been running for awhile disturbing to much of the substrate could release a lot of the debris back into the system creating parameter spikes so just keep up on the gravel vacs during your water change and you'll be fine

 

[tamtam]

Do you mean do a gravel vac? Once a week gravel vaccing should be enough unless you are over feeding.

How high are you letting the ammonia go to. If it hasn't come down with a 33% change it makes me think it might be rather high.

 

[Chrissa]

I would not gravel vacuum for the first month you do not want to take away that BB! What kind of filter are you running? I would also not wash out the filter for the first month maybe two depending On what kind ... you want to establish as much bacteria as you can. Hope that helps

 

[Prediscus23]

Ok Thanx, I was just worried about delaying the cycling by possibly disturbing the budding BB

 

[tamtam]

Ok Thanx, I was just worried about delaying the cycling by possibly disturbing the budding BB

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. I just finished a fish in cycle and I can honestly say my weekly gravel vaccing hasn't effected the cycle. 2 months practically on the nose with no seeded media.

I would worry more about the risk of build up in the gravel causing ammonia spikes. It's important to not add to that risk. Especially if you are only a week or so into a fish in cycle with 6 fish. That's a very hefty bioload as it is with a fish in cycle. At this stage in the game I think 3 fish would be the recommended amount of fish.

 

[Prediscus23]

U see I started out at 3 glow light tetras and I posted on here to see if that was adequate. Everyone said no because the bio load to properly cycle the tank was not enough. Soo.. In turn I bought 3 lamp-eyes. Aggravation has set in! Lol

 

[Prediscus23]

I am running a marineland penguin 200. I do have some seeded media, I have an algae ball from petsmart. My ammonia levels are at .25 ATM. It is a very small spike, I jus want to keep control of the tank. Should I use an ammonia reducer or just do PWC?

 

[Mrc8858]

You don't have to many fish. Just make sure you keep up with water changes to keep ammo and trites down