Cleaning Gravel

[Ryan.O.]

Hey everyone,
The gravel in my fish tank is really dirty and I think I should take it out and clean it. How should I do this? Where should I put the fish? Would they be ok in 1 or 2 buckets.

 

[Butterfly]

No need to take your gravel out to clean it just vacuum it. You can buy a gravel vacuum/siphon at the lfs. Just vac the gravel everyother water change or do half each time.
Carol

 

[lokky.funky]

Yeah.. Carol is right

You do not have to take out all the gravel to clean it. It would definitely disturb the fish tank cycle.

You can vacuum the grave every time you need to change water.

P.S. Vacuum only 1 half of the gravel bed every time. The other half the other time you change water

 

[Ryan.O.]

I found out that I have a self-starting gravel vac but it dosent work very well. it dosent suck up any gravel when I try 2 use it. my gravel is pretty big could it be 2 big?

 

[Stradius011]

It's not supposed to suck up gravel. The wastes in the gravel just rises up and goes into the bucket.

 

[Ryan.O.]

Ok this dosnt really happen when I do water changes. the gravel is usually as dirty as when I start. do u hold it down on the gravel or what? mine came with no instructions.

 

[Jmarcus]

I always push my vac.thru the gravel to the bottom of tank pull up sediment then move it over seems to work fine

 

[Ryan.O.]

Allright thamks I will try it on da weekend

 

[Richard]

Also a neat little trick of physics to get the suction going without having to pump the vac up and down in the water and distressing the fish, is to submerge the whole thing until all the air-pockets are out, place your finger over the end of the hose while the end of the vac stays in the water,move the hose out and down into the bucket, remove finger, and voila, instant suction.
Somewhere out there is one of my old English teachers groaning at the length of that sentence!!