What is the best way to Vacum ?

[Rocket2001]

I'm thinking I'm going to vacum my tank for the first time. It finished cycling two weeks ago and I was told not to vacum during this process. But is now the right time? Visually I really don't have alot of debris on the gravel, but I realize the big problem isn't what you can see, its what you can't see. When I do vacum is it best to remove as much decoration as you can or disturb as little as possible. it seems it would be easiest to take everything out so you can vacum unobstructed. And then clean the inside glass if nessasary. What the thoughts on this. is now the time to vacum and leave everything in place or remove as much as possible?

 

[robertmarda]

I don't know if now is the best time or not. In my opinion, you can wait a week or two longer. When I vacuum my tank (55 gallons) I usually just move all the decorations to one side and vacuum the side that doesn't have any decorations. Then I put the decorations back in place. I usually wait a couple weeks or more before doing the other side.

As I have learned (anyone reading this can correct me if I learned wrong) when you vacuum you disrupt the beneficial bacteria colonies in the substrate and so it can be good to only disrupt half of the ones in the substrate at any one time.

When I had my 10 gallon tank running, I usually did the whole thing. But I knew less back then. Of course you also have beneficial bacteria in the filter so as long as you don't clean the filter the same time you do the bottom of your tank you could be ok doing the entire tank.

I don't take the decorations out of the water because I don't want them dripping all over the place.

 

[joekoug]

When I do my weekly (Sat. morning) partial water changes I just vacuum everything out as good as I can without moving my plants around. I also rinse out my filters, and of course change around 20% of my water. My ammonia and Nitrites never go past zero and my nitrAtes are always below 20.

HTH
Joe

 

[urville]

yeah if you have plants dont vacuum around their bases much if at all.
honeslty i've met guys who vac sections, and who vac every week. it's been my ascertation that the vac'ing doesnt hurt your bio bed if your generally pretty gentle about it. take your time you know.

 

[Fishalicious]

I used to do just half, but now every two weeks I vacuum my whole tank and i've never had any spikes of any sort. I move all of the decorations and everything. I have plastic plants so its not too hard.
As stated, I just wouldnt change my filter pads at the same time as a vacuum because im sure that would cause some problems.

Dan

 

[urville]

i agree. it's also to use change water to rinse the debris from the filter pad rather than completely change it, but i dont remember if you ever HAVE to change it out, it's been a long time since i used one

 

[robertmarda]

That is the reason I only do half. I am not too gentle about vacuuming. I generally try to get as much waste and gunk as I can.

 

[TankGirl]

A tank that cycled two weeks ago is not "established" so I think care should be taken when vac'ing the gravel at this point. I do think a cursory vac is in order, though, as it can get away from you if you wait too long. It also depends on your fish load quite a bit.

I do not generally move decorations, as mine are basically touching the bottom of the tank and the gravel or sand is spread around them, rather than the decoration sitting on top. At this point I would take your hand in the tank and "wave" it around close to the substrate. You should see quite a bit of debris fly around when you do this. Try to get that stuff up without grinding around much in the gravel.

After about 3 months or so you should feel free to vac as you like, and the more often you do it the less of a chance you will have of causing problems. Use the mulmy water to feed your houseplants and they will be thrilled!

 

[Rocket2001]

Tankgirl, that was exactly my concern, thats why I asked. So how often should I use the "waving" method. Between now and when the tank is "established"

 

[TankGirl]

If you were me and a bit over the top with water changes, then you would be doing this a little bit twice a week. Otherwise I think once a week is cool. Some say do it once every 2 weeks but I find that debris mounts up and then (in my own very humble and perhaps misinformed opinion) you are set up for illness and whatnot. Do it as often as is reasonable for your life and your schedule.

Mind you, in my planted tank I just get the big chunks that rests on leaves or is obvious, because the plants rooted in the substrate like this natural fertilizer, like urville brought up.

 

[chasgood]

I seem to have gone to a method that goes in a 3 week cycle.
week 1 I deep clean vacum the left half.
week 2 I do the same to the right half.
week 3 I just vacum the surface of the gravel.
I vacum around plants and decorations.
I did deep cleaning even during the cycling period. It may have caused it to take a week or 2 longer to finish but other than that no harm was done.