vacuum gravel at every water change???

[yankeeslover]

finally have my 29 gallon cycled... im not even close to stocked yet, but once i have everything all stocked do i do a 25-30% PWC once per week? and if so do i do the gravel everyweek? and if i do gravel every week do i do all the gravel or only a section at a time? i dont want to start a cycle again by losing bacteria...i do use a AC 70, so i imagine alot of bacteria is on that big filter..

 

[LyndaB]

In a newly cycled 29 gallon, I would do a partial gravel vac every 2 weeks. I would do 50% water changes weekly as fish love fresh water.

After 3 months or so, or an increase in your bioload if prior to 3 months, I would switch to gravel vacs every week, still doing 50% water change weekly.

 

[gabysapha]

You wont lose your biological filter through water changes unless you dont dechlorinate the water I dont know what everyone else does, but i change out as much water as I can each week, with a shallow gravel vac. I have heavily planted tanks, so I dont deeply vac.

I change at least 100% of the water in all my tanks once per week (except the shrimp tanks), usually in 50% biweekly steps. Large water changes wont hurt the bacteria.