Vacuuming Substrate Questions.

[Jim Fritz]

I purchased a large bag (enough to cover the whole bottom to and inch or so) of a very fine substrate that contained the bacteria necessary to start a tank. No rinsing I was told. This was early in 2018. I covered that with 3 colors of aquarium gravel. I have never vacuumed the bottom because then it would all mix together and not look as good. Now I know it needs to be siphoned out to remove waste.
Is there a way to keep it looking pretty with the colored gravel on top, and should I remove the fish to buckets of established aquarium water to siphon and clean the bottom or just work around them?
p.s. - I do regular water changes and have had no fish deaths. Please advise.

 

[goatnad]

I can't tell you exactly what direction to go but I can tell you be careful about doing a deep cleaning of the whole tank with fish in. You could stir up a lot of waste that can release toxic amounts of stuff like ammonia into the tank. It would be wise to do a third or half the tank each day with a nice water change afterwards. Good luck on the cleaning.

 

[King Fisher]

Actually you don't necessarily have to. Are your water parameters out of wack? Especially nitrates? If everything is fine I'd leave it alone. Waste will break down in the water column and your filters and regular water changes removes it.

 

[Fishlover99]

I purchased a large bag (enough to cover the whole bottom to and inch or so) of a very fine substrate that contained the bacteria necessary to start a tank. No rinsing I was told. This was early in 2018. I covered that with 3 colors of aquarium gravel. I have never vacuumed the bottom because then it would all mix together and not look as good. Now I know it needs to be siphoned out to remove waste.
Is there a way to keep it looking pretty with the colored gravel on top, and should I remove the fish to buckets of established aquarium water to siphon and clean the bottom or just work around them?
p.s. - I do regular water changes and have had no fish deaths. Please advise.

Yes for real if your water isn't off then don't touch it. I speak from experience. You can suck away all that beneficial bacteria that seems to be awesome job at breaking things down for you. I wouldn't disturb your gravel. You have capped. Releasing that cap might do you more damage than good. I know a guy that has a 300 tanks, none and I mean none have filters, they are all stocked and he breeds, that's why he has 300 tanks. His fish house is quite, the fish are happy. The tanks are clear and pristine. He is even scaping some tanks with algae, they look like they are out of this world. I would say keep on going the way you are.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Jim...

You don't need to vacuum the bottom material. The waste the fish produce easily dissolves in the water as does everything else in the tank. By simply removing most of the tank water and replacing it every few days, you remove whatever has dissolved in it. There's no reason to go to so much effort to keep the water conditions healthy for the fish. Just change the water.

B

 

[Jim Fritz]

Perhaps I'll just try a quick vacuuming of the surface of the gravel to remove any debris that isn't down too far.