Razimith

So it has been 4 months now and I have gone from 0 tanks to 4 tanks this is a great hobby and keeps me out of trouble. LOL

I have a couple of questions now that I have not found the answer to by searching the forum.

In my 60 gal hex I have created a kind of rock pyramid so that my sharks have plenty of places to hide. I have room that I left clear in the front for feeding so that I can vacuum this area. This is the area were I place most of the food for my fish. I am concerned because this is not just a couple of rocks we are talking about probably more like 20-25 rocks the size of baseballs or softballs.

My question is this do you have to take out all your decorations to clean the gravel thoroughly every once in a while?

My next question is lets say a fish is missing do you have to remove all the rocks and stuff until you find the missing fish?

Is it more harmful to the other fish to rearrange everything in the tank by taking the rocks out instead of just leaving the dying fish in there?

I ask these questions because about 2 weeks ago I had an emperor tetra get caught under a rock at the base of the pyramid I saw him thinking he was sick. The fish was still there the night before I had to work the next day which I work long hours and when I came home I thought he was dead because he was not moving so I had to basically removed all my stones and decorations to remove him. To my surprise he was still alive and actually ate that night. Well in doing all of this is stirred up all the nasty’s in the tank and my fish developed ICH which I have treated and all my fish are back to normal with no casualties

This was an easy one because I saw the fish laying there but what about the fish that are just missing. The guy at the local fish store said in the future unless you actually see the fish just leave them in there. The power that be will take care of the dying fish. Not really fond of this answer but it seems in this setup I either need to remove my rock to make it easier to clean or is this the actual correct answer. The guy at the local fish store said that he never really disturbs his tank but if this is the case being a 60gal hex tank I can realistically only clean about 10% of the gravel without moving things around.

Which by the way anybody know of a siphon that is the diameter of a penny therefore making is easier to clean in small areas.

Steen16

I made a small siphon vaccum..
I would say its not a good idea to leave rotting fish in your tank It can cause all sorts of nasty's. lol
JUst try to make your pyramid so you cant get fish caught under it. And all gaps and cracks visible so if you lose a fish you can just check around without disturbing the tank.
If a fish does die and you can see him i think the best way to get them is to suck them up a hose rather then your hand going in.
Hope this helps at all

Butterfly

When I set my sand tank up I placed the base rocks on the glass(they had silicone feet) then filled the sand around it. There are all kinds of hiding/sleeping places. When I do water changes I use a DIY siphon /water return hose and kind of hit the few caves I can't vac to wash any debris out and vacuum the rest.
Unless you have aggression to the extent you need to re-arrange the tank I personally wouldn't take all that rock out to clean
carol

DarkRevoultions

Well I have been raising fishes for a long time now, about 10 years I guess, and I have a 350 gallon tank that is new, and I have lots of gravel, and my 200 gallon is filled with sand and my 29 gallon is just filled with gravel.

I have a huge siphon that has a very strong sucking system. It gets the waste out very quickly, and the gravel just spins around and the waste stuck to the gravel gets out

Also, for my sand, I turn the sucking speed to a very very low setting, so it doesn't suck up a lot of the sand that much I still have to put in some new sand once in a while.

Also, you don't have to move the decorations in your aquarium because you'll just create more waste to the aquarium.

Also, if you want. You can use a siphon that has a sucking speed that you can easily change. It's real great

I have a lot of gravel in my 29 gallon, and it i about 2" deep, so it helps with my plants to root themselves in. Also, I have to dig down in the the gravel so then I can get all of the waste out

Also, I set the siphon sucking speed to medium-high level on it.

It's good to siphon the tank a lot, because it helps with all the waste being sucked out

Also, just like a river, the waste gets washed out, and for the tank, the siphon gets the waste out same thing eh?