How much do you gravel vac?

[Menagerie]

It has come to my attention that I might be over doing it in the gravel vacuuming department! When I gravel vac, I like to remove all decor from the tank and clean away. After reading a few threads lately, I am wondering if I should only do part of the tank.

 

[shawmutt]

None I have sand. When I did have gravel I would vac the whole thing.

 

[An t-iasg]

This is the routine that I've worked out: I do gravel vacs to half the tank weekly. I remove the silk plants in the front half of the tank. I rinse them under the faucet and put them on a piece of saran wrap. I gravel vac that front half, then put the plants back and pour the new water in. The next week, I'll do the same thing with the back half of the tank. I always take out the java moss, or else it flies all around the tank and makes a mess!

About once a month, or 6 weeks, I'll vac the whole tank. I have a sponge filter, so this doesn't hurt anything. I won't rinse the plants this time. I'll take them all out and put them on the saran wrap. When the bucket fills up with tank water, I'll put them in the bucket. Then I'll wipe the algae off the air tube that goes to the sponge filter, and take the heater out and rinse/wipe the suction cups. I'll squeeze the sponge filter in the bucket water. I'll make the gravel neat and flat, put everything back in the tank, and add new water.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I vac the whole thing, but I don't do it all that well. Instead, I just move the vaccum around the plants and get as much of the tank as I can, but leave a few areas until next week. I think, once a month maybe, I take the decorations and plants out, and gravel vac good.

Other than that, I voted 3/4, because that is probably what I do in a week.

 

[jmoore]

recently Ive only been doing 1/4 or less at a time, which in a 29g isnt a whole lot.

(on a side note...devilishturtles, what size aquarium do you keep your turtle in, or is it in a pond?)

 

[William]

None, I have sand in all my tanks

I do syphon the bits of poo and what not off the surface of the sand, and when I do it I hit the whole tank.


I never removed decoratiosn even when I did use gravel, IMHO it should be a requirement to move that stuff to often, afterall...fish don't move the things, poo, then put htem back .

I would gravel vac under my decorations maybe once a month, and even then I only slid it to the side, hit the spot, put it back. I never took stuff out of the tank and cleaned it, unless it was really required.

 

[liquidelusion]

i vac about 1/4-1/3 with my weekly water changes. i have live plants so i try not to distrub them, but i do lift up my wood and vac under that

 

[Talon242]

I do about 1/2 one side one week the other the next.

 

[Devilishturtles]

(on a side note...devilishturtles, what size aquarium do you keep your turtle in, or is it in a pond?)

JMoore, I have two one-year old turtles (carcapace diameter is about 2-3 inches) in a 20 gal long tank right now, about 5-6 inches of water, and a basking platform. They will soon outgrow it though and need something bigger.

With gravel vaccing, it seems I do WAY more than average...

 

[TankGirl]

Once long ago I was annoyed with how much crud was coming up the tube, so I too removed the decorations and vacuumed the gravel heavily, as much as I could without draining the tank, LOL.

I wound up with a mini-cycle from my efforts, and since then I pay close attention to how much I feed and try not to worry about getting every bit of floating debris. In the tanks where I have gravel that can be vacuumed, I usually do about 1/3, but I do not move decorations. Generally over time I wind up rearranging the tank, moving the tank or otherwise changing the setup so the accumulated crud winds up getting taken care of periodically anyway.

Right now the only gravel tank I have that is not planted I can't vac at all because I have miniscule cherry shrimp fry all over the place - I just syphon off the water and hope for the best!

 

[LittlePuff]

I do one half every week.Next week, the other. If I do much more, my tank has a mini-cycle.

Kim

 

[oscarbreeder]

I gravel vac the whole tank every week.
I cant stand the thought of all that crud being in my tanks.

 

[Menagerie]

Thanks for your input everyone! (I forgot I started this thread )