Is gravel vacuuming once a week enough?

I have 55 gallon fish tank. I want to go ahead and say I have posted separate threads about the goldfish temp, the clown loach size and school and the kissing gourami I know about these issues and they will be resolved. I also have four glowfish tetra in the tank and a nerite snail. Normally I do a gravel vacuum every Thursday. But this evening I was moving some decor around and just in that one spot there was a LOT of nasty stuff coming up and floating. So I'm wondering if I should be gravel vaccuming twice a week? I have started to get back into plants but I only have a few and they're small so they dont do much yet.

 

From what I hear, goldfish are very dirty, so it couldn't hurt. You tank can never be too clean. If your water parameters are all good then it probably isn't necessary, especially if you stay on top of your weekly cleaning.

 

Nitrates look to be little bit red so closer to 40ppm. And today will make 5 days since water change. I had to do a big water change over a month ago it was 80ppm (my test strips werent accurate for nitrates)so looks like its rising again. Maybe I should be gravel vaccuming twice a week.

 

With your stocking, I would be doing 75% water change every week. In case you don't know, every percent of water you remove, will remove the same percentage of nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, etc. If you're seeing 80 ppm nitrates, a 75% WC will bring them down to 20 ppm, if I did my math right, lol. Still a little high, but not a disaster. I agree with Grace4514, your nitrates look about 40 ppm, so a 50% WC will only bring them down to 20 ppm.

 

I know I try to do small water changes twice a week rather than one big one it's a lot easier on my fish lol. I was doing two water changes a week after I did that big one ( not sure how much I took out but my nitrates went from 80ppm to like 20ppm. since they were reading 5ppm each week after that, I thought maybe it was just old tank syndrome and I read that every few weeks to do a 50% WC instead of just 25% would keep that from happening. But apparently I need to go back to two WCs a week. Also thank you for your help

 

I agree with everything mentioned above. However, I think its usually normal if nitrates are between 10-20 or so if you do not have any live plants.

 

I think so, hoping to get more plants soon. Also trying to grow sweet potatoes in my tank as well.

 

I think so, hoping to get more plants soon. Also trying to grow sweet potatoes in my tank as well.

Did you say Sweet Potatoes, LOL

 

Just remember when doing water changes, if you have any decorations in the tank, you should move them so all the gunk under it can get vacuumed up. I hear some many people say my nitrates are so high.
Once they move and or take out the decorations they see all that gunk in the tank.

 

Oh my!! How did you get yours to float at first? Did you cut them in half then stick them in?

Also today I did a gravel vac and took out all the decor just to make it easier. It took me like a hour to get all of that stuff out. There also was a ton of needles from the new hornwort like all of the needles fell off. And I found pieces of stink bugs in there that fell under the gravel.... I have no idea how but apparently one got in there and didnt make it out. So I know rotting bugs definitely didnt help lol.

 

Oh my!! How did you get yours to float at first? Did you cut them in half then stick them in?

Also today I did a gravel vac and took out all the decor just to make it easier. It took me like a hour to get all of that stuff out. There also was a ton of needles from the new hornwort like all of the needles fell off. And I found pieces of stink bugs in there that fell under the gravel.... I have no idea how but apparently one got in there and didnt make it out. So I know rotting bugs definitely didnt help lol.

What? The 'taters? They're not floating, lol. They're "mounted" with bbq skewers. The first 3 photos I posted are from my last batch. These are from ones I put in in mid February. There's actually two potatoes , both skewered to keep them in place.





This last photo is a cutting from one of the potatoes above. I wanted to see if it would root like pothos does. In the same photo is also a clump of roots and leaf stems from the same potato above. So far, they're doing great, and they really do help keep nitrates low.

 

I just put mine in yesterday, I cut them in half and spent forever trying to find a way to get them to stay floating lol. I'm gonna try to get some skewers soon. Those look great! Have you planted any other vegetables in aquariums before?

 

I just put mine in yesterday, I cut them in half and spent forever trying to find a way to get them to stay floating lol. I'm gonna try to get some skewers soon. Those look great! Have you planted any other vegetables in aquariums before?

No, only the potatoes. I've seen people "planting" strawberrys, but I think my next try will be pothos, and (a big maybe here) a Peace Lily.

If you look real close at the one photo, you'll see I have about 2 inches between the glass cover and the back rim. If I get a potato just the right size, it will hold in that gap, if I lean it up against my HOB, or in the corner. The skewers let me put them where I want in that gap. Also, you only want 1 to 1.5 inches of the tip submerged. Just enough to keep it wet and in the water.

 

Once a week is plenty.

 

Thank you very much! New to growing aquarium plants in general let alone sweet potatoes lol.