Gravel cleaning!

[The Editor]

Hey AA,

How often and how thoroughly do you clean your gravel?

I do fairly regularly water changes as:

1: I have only a small tank so I want to make sure there's as little possible chance of a crash
2: I have a lump of bogwood that is leaching tannins still and after a few days the water is unpleasantly brown

Whenever I do I use my gravel vacuum, however I never feel I've managed a good thorough clean as I run out of water before I finish the clean! This frustrates me as I'm unable to get up all the little bits of debris and waste, and when I refill the tank all these little bits of debris get stirred up again and make the water look horrible for an hour or so until they settle again...

They're too small to be caught in my filter (Fluval U1 with biorings stuffed in under the sponge), so just get stirred around until they get caught in a plant or sink...

I've seen those battery powered gravel vacs with a filter bag so no water leaves the tank.. Are these actually any good? Or would I do better acquiring a power head and coming up with a DIY powered gravel vac with a fine screen filter of sorts... I've seen other people do this but it seems overkill for such a small area of gravel to clean...

Or would it be better to treat the cause as it were and try and get stronger circulation of water lower in my tank to keep the particles suspended then incorporate something into my current filter setup to catch them...

Also why oh why does one of my guppies insist on turfing out a GIANT turd front and centre of the tank as soon as I'm done cleaning up... It's as if they know I've just cleaned up and do it right where I'll see it just to annoy me...

I like a clean detritus free environment for my gupps! Should I just stop worrying about these tiny bits of junk as it doesn't seem to bother the gupps in the least bit...

 

[eco23]

Hey AA,

How often and how thoroughly do you clean your gravel?

I do fairly regularly water changes as:

1: I have only a small tank so I want to make sure there's as little possible chance of a crash
2: I have a lump of bogwood that is leaching tannins still and after a few days the water is unpleasantly brown

Whenever I do I use my gravel vacuum, however I never feel I've managed a good thorough clean as I run out of water before I finish the clean! This frustrates me as I'm unable to get up all the little bits of debris and waste, and when I refill the tank all these little bits of debris get stirred up again and make the water look horrible for an hour or so until they settle again...

They're too small to be caught in my filter (Fluval U1 with biorings stuffed in under the sponge), so just get stirred around until they get caught in a plant or sink...

I've seen those battery powered gravel vacs with a filter bag so no water leaves the tank.. Are these actually any good? Or would I do better acquiring a power head and coming up with a DIY powered gravel vac with a fine screen filter of sorts... I've seen other people do this but it seems overkill for such a small area of gravel to clean...

Or would it be better to treat the cause as it were and try and get stronger circulation of water lower in my tank to keep the particles suspended then incorporate something into my current filter setup to catch them...

Also why oh why does one of my guppies insist on turfing out a GIANT turd front and centre of the tank as soon as I'm done cleaning up... It's as if they know I've just cleaned up and do it right where I'll see it just to annoy me...

I like a clean detritus free environment for my gupps! Should I just stop worrying about these tiny bits of junk as it doesn't seem to bother the gupps in the least bit...

I'm not familiar with the battery powered gravel vacs...but I have my own technique for cleaning. The rear and mid-ground of my tank is planted, but the front is open swimming room. Anytime I feed, I turn off my filter and feed only at the front of the tank. This way any food particles that make it to the substrate fall only to the front of the tank and are not blown all over the place. When I gravel vac, I only focus on the front section of the tank since that's where the excess food has gone. I don't really concern myself too much with the back portions because my understanding is that the small portions of decaying matter will actually help to feed and nourish the plant. The important part is to remember to plug the filter back in after feeding time . By cleaning this way, you will not go overboard by over cleaning and potentially removing too much beneficial bacteria.

 

[AquaOne]

Powered gravel-vac does work okay, but I normally do as you are with a syphon-vac. I try to get everywhere in the tank, but inevitably there are less accessible areas that don't get cleaned so well. I do a 20% pwc and it's enough to keep everything in order. The answer is to be gentle with the fresh water going back into the tank, don't just 'throw' it in the tank, I use a 1L jug (used to be for the gravy !) and gently place it into the water, saving it from stirring-up the substrate. Even then, there's a bit of clouded water when everything is fired back up, but only about ½hr before it's all clear again. BTW I'm pretty sure you couldn't remove so much waste from substrate that would remove too much bacteria. If your fish are swimming round with their eye's closed after your pwc, maybe there's a problem with excess detritus !! TiC !!

 

[The Editor]

Got a new plan...

Fitted a small water bottle on the outlet tube of the syphon and packed it with my GFs make up pads (shhhh don't tell her!)...

Drilled holes in the bottom to let the water drain into the usual syphoning bucket...

Now I can give the gravel a good going over with the particle filter over the syphon tube.. then return the water to the tank and then the usual PWC routine...

I've got an opportunely placed book shelf next to my tank so I place the bucket of water to go back into the tank on the top shelf then syphon water back into the tank... I point the tube at a wall to break the force of the water falling so that's not an issue...

I thought the bacteria clung on harder to surfaces than would result in them being removed by a syphon...

After closer inspection I realised a lot of the *cloud* was actually micro-bubble being produced and blown around by the filter... I guess I either disable the ventrui on the filter or just get over these minor nit picks!