Longest time /without Vacuuming gravel ?
- Thread starter bmoraski
- Start date
no idea. I havent vaccuumed my flourite nor my eco-complete in my planted tanks since i set them up in September...i just run the vac and swish it above the substrate to get any debris off. never really push the vac into the areas...
Gravel? maybe two weeks is safe. when i still had gravel in my 40 gal i'd vaccum once a month but thats not very safe, and i kept having mini cycles (this was before i actually started testing my water and caring for the tank)
Gravel? maybe two weeks is safe. when i still had gravel in my 40 gal i'd vaccum once a month but thats not very safe, and i kept having mini cycles (this was before i actually started testing my water and caring for the tank)
honestly this is bad to say but ive only vaccumed once since ive had the tank setup and its been almost 2yrs set up now. last time i vaccumed was over a year ago and that was when i was adding the soil substrate to start planted and rearranged the tank and adding more black rock. i dont EVER see anything in my gravel although i KNOW that it is and what i do is not good but ive had that bala in there since the tank was 3 days old (when i didnt know anything about anything including cycling) and hes still alive and there wouldve been other fish but i got rid of them to do certain things with my tank. ive only had a couple algae blooms since first started up. things i have done for maintence on my tank has been lazy and not right but what i do has worked for me. but another thing to keep in mind why it probably does so well i have 2 HOB filters that are both dual filters (so 2 filter pads and 2 carbon pads per HOB) and i do for the most part keep up on keeping the filters and carbon pads clean though
the type of filters i use are from walmart and in my signature
the type of filters i use are from walmart and in my signature
so then what i do is completely fine with not really ever vacuming? i dont ever see any large chunks or anything at all. but ive also ALWAYS kept many bottom feeders in my tank so this could be a reason im assuming. ive always kept a lot of bottom feeders to try and keep the tank clean and i also doubled up my dual HOB filters so i would imagine that helps out a lot to
I appreciate the feedback.
i always vac when doing weekly water change, up until my snail prob in my 20gal.
ive got LOTS OF SNAILS ,and they plug up the vac. I know the only way to get rid of them is to take the tank down and clean. They just keep coming ! lol
ive tried Zuccini etc.
believe it or not the best way to get them out is when there all balled up around a dead fish.
Anyway its been a month without vac in my 20gal and luckily the tank is fine, just the usual high Nitrate ( 40+ppm) because of OVER population, but crystal clear.
the big goldies at work are gonna love the snails i hope. lol
if not oh well.
oh and horn wort is doing great, even though thats why i have snails now !
anyway thanks again for input
ill get a pic before i clean tank, and youll see why it had to be done.
later
i always vac when doing weekly water change, up until my snail prob in my 20gal.
ive got LOTS OF SNAILS ,and they plug up the vac. I know the only way to get rid of them is to take the tank down and clean. They just keep coming ! lol
ive tried Zuccini etc.
believe it or not the best way to get them out is when there all balled up around a dead fish.
Anyway its been a month without vac in my 20gal and luckily the tank is fine, just the usual high Nitrate ( 40+ppm) because of OVER population, but crystal clear.
the big goldies at work are gonna love the snails i hope. lol
if not oh well.
oh and horn wort is doing great, even though thats why i have snails now !
anyway thanks again for input
ill get a pic before i clean tank, and youll see why it had to be done.
later
I just gutted my 5 gallon and removed about 100 snails. Every other day, I see a tiny baby snail in there and I get rid of it. Best of luck cleaning your tank. I recommend removing all fish before cleaning because with my tank, there was so much gunk under the gravel that regular gravel clean-up hadn't removed and the ammonia had an insane spike and 3 fry died.
thank you very much. i just got rid of my bichir so now im going to get a school of either neon or xray tetras and 5 otos. then this week hopefully i have enough time to re aquascape my tank. its getting changed again but im goin to open the center up (going to take out huge cylinder on left side and moving driftwood pile in center to left side of tank then im waiting on orangecones to let me know when her friend has more plant cuttings available then im gonna plant the crap out of it
