How Often Should I Vacuum My Gravel?

Hi everyone, hope you all are well!

I am new to the hobby and my 8 gallon tank has just finished cycling. I just want to find out, when cleaning my tank, how often should i do water changes and how much? Also how often should i vacuum my gravel?

Thanks for your help!

 

What is your ammonia source?

 

I do 25% water changes once a week. I vacuum a portion of my gravel during every water change and then the following week do another portion etc etc

 

If there's no fish or food in tank yet it's not necessary to gravel vac yet....

 

I did a fish-in cycle, so my tank has been running for about 3 weeks now. I also used beneficial bacteria and did daily 30% water changes with prime. I tested my water at a local fishkeeper, and my cycle seems to have completed, but i am going to do another test in a few days just to make sure. I was just wondering in terms of maintenance, how often should i vac and do water changes?

T

Thank you for your help!

 

In a newly established tank I'd be doing it lightly for the first few months. All my tanks are well established so I vacuum the substrate every water change except those tanks with active diggers (cichlids). I don't bother cleaning their substrate as they stir it up plenty on their own.

Also, don't worry about cleaning under ornaments, the "dead spots" are actually pretty beneficial so just leave them be unless you are rearranging things.

 

This is very helpful, thank you very much! So you would say once a week? And since the tank is cycled, when would you say should i start?

 

I don’t, my shrimp and trumpet snails turn it over and the rest falls between my gravel and becomes ‘soil’ for my plant roots

I tried vacuuming my gravel on different occasions and always got a cloudy tank so I stopped. Did some reading and found that there are a lot of people who don’t vac at all and have no problems. Who’d have thunk it

 

In my established tank's I vacuum the gravel every week.