Austin {Aquarist}

I don't vacuum my tank but just replace the water because I thought that vacuuming the gravel would take all the nutrients out. to vac or not to vac that is the question : P

sirdarksol

I vacuum, except when I have new plants rooting, as I don't want to disturb the young roots.

steveangela1

In my lake malawi tanks where there is no plants I clear the tank out and vac every inch.. however my 10g is a planted tank where I keep my smaller sized peacocks growing out, and I do the same as above, I vaccum everywhere except where the plants are to keep from bothering the roots of the plants.

Austin {Aquarist}

is what I'm doing ok for my tanks though??

sirdarksol

I have no idea, as I don't do that. I vacuum, as enough nutrients will get into the roots to keep the plants alive. Pretty much everything I vacuum up is going to end up turning into excess nitrate in the water.

steveangela1

well, there is a lot of food and fish poo/wast that falls to the gravel that you get up when you vaccum... I would recomend if you don't vaccum at least moving the decor around and stirring up the gravel and let the filter get the stuff.

Austin {Aquarist}

thanks I do that sometimes I just wanted your opinions

RiffDawg15

This is what I usually do....

When I vacuum my gravel I only vacuum half the tank at a time. Usually one side once a month, then two weeks later do the other side.

So basically your vacuuming one side, once a month, but each side two weeks apart. I hope that makes sense.

This gives that gravel you vacuum time to build up some more bacteria and wont cause your tank to go into a mini cycle.

Tumbleweed

I vacume all of my tanks on a regulat basis, and would not recomend doing anything else. The purpose of vacuming the gravel or sand is to remove excess waste from the tank that can cause an increase in amonia and nitrates. As for the concern for removing nuetriants and good bacteria from the tank, as long as you have a good filtration system with a biological and mechanical filter system on it you will be fine.