mini cycle?

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You might see spikes in ammonia and nitrite and your tank water may get cloudy.
 
Here's what i was referring to...





The main Bacteria that develops during a cycle is held both in the Gravel and in the filter media...When most people do water changes, they also do a deep gravel vacuum...

I'm wondering if you can lose a cycle by doing an indepth/thorough gravel vacuum
I have never experienced a mini-cycle from deep gravel vacs & i do them every week along with 2x wk 50-70% pwcs. I think if you dont keep up gravel vacs, then a mini-cycle may be possible because of all the accumulated fish poop & rotting debris. Some people only vac 1/2 gravel each wk, then the other 1/2 the next wk. It depends on your setup & how messy your fish are- a single betta in 10 gal tank is not going to have the same degree of messiness as 2 goldfish in a 30gal. Goldfish rule for messiness!
 
Cool I understand... I cleaned my filter the other day(fluval 405).... The replaced the carbons with new ones and I dipped the biomax in fresh water coming straight from the tank(no tap water)... I shaked it up a bit to get some debris out.....I rinsed the entire filter with water coming from the tank; and I also washed and ringed out the sponges(using regular running water because of the added pressure)... I then put everything back in and filled It(canister) with tank water before putting the filter back on...... Is that a good method???


Ps Im gonna start doing half deep gravel every week....
 
It should be fine as long as you didn't replace too much filter media with new or you didn't rinse it off in fresh tap water without a dechlorinator. If you're worried just test the tank with a test kit for a few days to make sure there aren't any spikes and if there are just do water changes until everything goes back to normal. It should be fine though.
 
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