Never vacuumed the gravel!

Today I'm at my grandfathers house. He just had surgery so I'm going to do a water change on his 55 gallon tank for him, but I was shocked when he said that he has never vacuumed his gravel in the year he has owned his tank. The tank looks great he does monthly water changes and has only had one death since owning the tank. All the fishes look healthy. I also tested to water and everything is fine. I was going to go to the local petsmart and buy a vacuum and clean the gravel but I'm concerned there might be poisonous bubbles that might kill all or some of the fish. What do you guys think I should do?

 

Gasses don't really tend to build up in gravel (not they *can't*, they just don't really seem to).

Seems like your grandpa's found a system that works for him. We all have our own ways for doing things

 

Agreed with Akari. In my experience, I have never had or met someone who has had fish die due to denitryfying bacteria in the substrate releasing toxic gasses.

 

Thanks guys I appreciate it.

 

Absolutely I have never gone a year without cleaning the gravel but I did go a couple of months because of fry... Never had a problem... The water will clear up shortly...

 

Agreed with Akari. In my experience, I have never had or met someone who has had fish die due to denitryfying bacteria in the substrate releasing toxic gasses.

And in my time on forums, I've never seen a "toxic gasses killed my fish" thread.

 

And in my time on forums, I've never seen a "toxic gasses killed my fish" thread.

That too! LOL