fish_newbie

Hi, my LFS sell this gravel cleaner which you use to stir up and the gravel and it sucks the dirt and brown particles out of the gravel. Do you also suck out the benificial bacteria too? Should I use it? Or when I do partial change I should only suck out the water and not stir up the gravel ?

Lucy

You should use a gravel vac to pick up fish waste and left over food.
Both these can break down and create ammonia in your tank.
It won't effect your bacteria unless your tank is really new. If it is just a light vacuuming is ok.
Here's good video capekate made to demonstrate:
1-2-3 easy aquarium siphon instructions - video

aquarist48

Good morning. I recommend the gravel cleaner highly. The best way that I have found to do it is to vacuum 1/3 of your gravel every 2 to 4 weeks. By only doing 1/3 of it will help protect your cycle. I suggest a water change every week to 2 weeks as well. You don't want to clean everything all at once to preserve your cycle