Gavel Cleaning

[hjsvt]

I'm having some difficulty each week getting my gravel vacuumed well. I have an Aqueon siphon I use now but I don't remember what size it is. The opening is about 1.5". Whenever I try to vacuum deep I seem to disturb and uproot plants and I have a hard time getting around rocks, driftwood and other decorations. Are more experienced fish keepers taking everything out of their tank every single week and vacuuming all around? Also, I'm taking my filters apart and rinsing things off every week. I have prefilter sponges on the intakes of my HOB filters and when I squeeze them repeatedly in the removed tank water the water turns very very dark brown fast. They get extremely dirty. What prompted these questions is the overnight appearance of what I think might be spots of BBA, right after a 50% WC. After some reading, high organics seems a common thought cause. And that makes sense in my tank given my gravel cleaning challenges and really dirty pre-filters in just one week. Also the fact that I had a huge brown algae outbreak and fertilizer deficiencies that had stopped plant growth and now I'm battling trying to clean up alot of dead dwarf sag. leaves. I try to pick out the dying leaves every other day but it seems there is always more but I do think I'm finally getting ahead of it with better fertilizer dosing. Also, I'm assuming as I get ahead of the brown algae it dies off and also increases the organics?

So what would you recommend for maybe a smaller gravel vacuum? Or do you recommend something else? What do people with no gravel showing with lots of plants do to get their gravel clean? Any help or suggestions you might have would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[ScotJudd]

I might get shot down in flames here but I have a VERY heavily planted tank and I never clean the gravel. Occasionally I clean the front visible gravel down to about a half inch but no deeper. I feed carefully and have Malayan trumpet snails that keep the gravel turned over, red cherry shrimp to clean up any food that gets into inaccessible areas and a good water flow with two external filters. I water change 25% twice a week and clean each filter every 4 weeks, 2 weeks apart. The water is crystal clear and I have no unwanted algae. I keep about 10 corydoras and they have never had barbel problems, they have even bred ( just one I will admit).
My point is that deep gravel cleaning is not always necessary.
I shall now wait for tons of abuse ?.



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[Cold Canadian]

I only gravel vac what is easy to get so the open beach area in my tank. If you uproot a plant no worries replant it.


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[nilzauk]

scottjudd that was sound advice. It's the 20% WC weekly and cleaning the filters monthly in the old tank water that keeps your tank crystal clear. Not to mention live plants that play a big part too.
I do vacuum the gravel but only around the accessible areas and leave the plants and their roots alone.



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[ImACoolguy]

I keep sand in all my tanks.

My JD tank is really the only tank I actually vacuum besides my bettas. I remove the driftwood in make JD tank and the top of his rock cave. Those are his hang out spots so that is where 95% of his pile of poo is. I have to vacuum every couple days now.

On the other hand in my moderately planted tank I never vacuum. Between water changes, over filtration, bottom feeders, and plants. I've never seen any waste floating around the bottom.

I clean each of my filters monthly.


Caleb

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[Fresh2o]

I've vacuumed my planted tank once in the last 2.5 years. That was a thorough vacuuming and the plants, fish, and dećor were removed. Yeah, there is a lot of buildup in the substrate; looks like mud if you dig down into it. I have MTS living in there as well.


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[hjsvt]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I am trying hard to feed carefully. I am over filtering per Aqua Advisor. I do have 4 nerite snails and I think 3-4 Amano shrimp left (They keep getting eaten, I started with 7. I'm soo not impressed with the 20+ year fish manager at the LFS right now. So hard to know what to believe when you are new to things. But that's another story for another thread). I don't really have to clean the filter pads in the filters weekly they are never really "dirty" but the sponge pre-filters are AMAZINGLY nasty and two of them change a 5 gallong bucket of removed tank water from clear to murky brown muck with several squeezes. When I stir my gravel (mostly Flora-Max with Eco Complete mixed in), I do stir up some stuff but I would not call it a lot. I am doing a 50% WC weekly. I feel that's the minimum I should do given the condition of the sponge prefilters, even though Aqua Advisor says 24% with my stock. I do think I'll consider getting some MTS. How big are these snails typically? I do have a paradise gouramis who could potentially bother them but so far as shown no interest in my nerite snails. Also, I have found the lemon tetras more aggressive then the paradise gouramis and they may actually be more of a problem with the shrimp then the gouramis. However they don't seem to bother the snails. Thanks again for comments.