Vacuuming during cycle?

[Todd2]

Can I vacuum the gravel in my 10g during the cycle or will it mess up the "good" bacteria?

 

[yhbae]

It could be a coincedence, but I was gravel vacuuming during the first two weeks of the cycling and bacteria was almost non-existant. As soon as I stoped vacuuming, I saw some serious expansion of the colonisation. I'd say do it lightly if the tank looks real messy...

 

[AtodaJ]

In general, I strongly discourage peeps from gravel vacuming during cycling as their is really no upside (makes your tank look cleaner I suppose) but lots of potential downside (messing up the cycling process). If you are properly cycling your tank then your fish load should be relatively light. If you really get the urge to get some of the poo out then vacum just above the gravel surface but don't touch the gravel. Be patient and wait for the cycle to complete. Once the cycle is complete only vacum half the gravel at most once a week.

 

[ferret]

If you're going to gravel vac, the idea is probably the skim across the surface of the gravel without digging too deeply.

 

[cindywindy]

To not vacuum thoroughly during the cycle would be a mistake.

There has never been any evidence to support the theory that vacuuming the substrate during cycling would delay the development of a healthy bacterial bed at all. The primary location for reproduction of nitrifying bacteria can be found in your filter media where the oxygen and nutrient content is the highest, not in the substrate. Are there bacteria in your gravel ? Of course, but eliminating their minute numbers during a thorough vacuuming will be FAR outweighed by the health benefits of eliminating decaying food and waste products that quickly become breeding grounds for disease-causing bacteria.

Detritus and debris that is left to dissolve in substrate have been confirmed to be directly responsible for a host of life-threatening diseases - and in a fish that is already experiencing a high level of physical stress from ammonia and nitrIte toxicity, adding the stress of dirty living conditions is not a good idea if the goal is to keep your fish's immune system elevated.

Feel free to vacuum away to your heart's content ... your fish will thank you !

 

[AtodaJ]

I love the sharing of diverse opinions. This forum (unlike many others on the net) encourages it and we all benefit from that.

Have to disagree with Cindy here.

You will still be doing water changes (more often than normal in fact) during cycling and that will reduce the "dirty living conditions" in addition to keeping the ammonia/nitrite down. As such the dirty living conditions line of reasoning doesn't make sense in this context. Plus your bio load shouldn't be very large during cycling anyways. Decaying matter will cause problems in the long term but in the short term (during cycling) there is nothing to support that contention given the frequent water changes being performed. We are talking about a new tank... not a mature tank. Detritus and debris left in a tank for 1 month will not be more harmful to your fish than allowing your amonia/nitrite levels to remain high for even just 1 extra day imho. If you want to help the fishies then get that cycle over as quickly as possible.

As for whether gravel vacuming can cause a delay in a tank cycling..... the potential exists. I would never say its certain because you never know exactly where your first large bacterial colonies will develop. Maybe they'll take a liking to that plastic plant or perhaps you'll get lucky and they'll go right for the bio wheel. There are so many factors. The bacterial colonies will NOT however grow evenly accross all surfaces. That is not how bacterial colonies grow.... they are opportunistic and will compete with eachother.

With that said if your first major bacterial colonies develop in the gravel then vacuming WILL be a problem imho and would be a mistake.

If you don't agree then ask yourself why you aren't supposed to vacum more than half your gravel surface during water changes? Why not just vacum it all if it doesn't really matter to your bio filter?

To take this reasoning one step further, what if your first major bacterial colonies happen to be in the half of the gravel you just vacumed during cycling? 8O

 

[Sinuhe]

I can't keep myself from vacuuming during cycling Looking at the poop lying there, or floating around, makes the neat freak in me go nuts It's probably going to take me a year to cycle .

 

[PlatyLady]

I feel the same as Sinuhe. Ever since I had an ich problem and was told on the forum that it's okay to vacuum the gravel as often as I want, that's what I've been doing. I've never had a problem with water parameters, I assume adding Cycle does the trick.

 

[AtodaJ]

Cycle puts bacteria in the water that eat Ammonia/Nitrite but they aren't the same bacteria that are part of the normal process and will not persist. That is why you have to continuously dose your tank with the product. If it really "cycled" your tank then you wouldn't need to keep putting it in with every water change.