Noob Needed Advice On Vacuuming

I'm a new hobbyist and have a 5.5g with 5 guppies, a snail, moss ball, amazon sword, anubias, and one other stick plant. Cycling went well and things have been generally fine since I started the tank around Nov 20th.

However, now the blue green algae buildup is getting to be a bit too much, and there is plenty of waste in the gravel. I bought the Terapump cleaner off Amazon - received a counterfeit which I am using while I struggle to file a claim from Amazon to get the real thing...but the pump is working and I'm getting good water flow. I think the BGA came as a result of not properly vacuuming the tank. For the BGA I can research this enough and will likely start with the blackout method....

Here is my question and point of this thread....what am I doing wrong with the vacuum and is there a better way to suck debris off the gravel more effectively? Do people sometimes temporarily move the fish, and rinse the gravel in separate conditioned water (I assume no as it could throw the tank balance off). By the time 1/4 water is left there is a lot of debris floating around in the water....enough dirt simply does not seem to shoot up through the pump. Plus I don't even have enough time to get the pump around the whole tank. General tips and tricks are much appreciated.

 

You should not remove your fish when vacuuming since it would cause a lot of stress on the fish, especially if you do it weekly. I wouldn’t remove the gravel since that is a lot of work. I would just vacuum around the plant making sure not to near the roots of the plants. I would just take time on the water changes and maybe not feed as much.

 

I always sucked at gravel vaccuming, I blame it on not wanting to destroy my carpet (rented)

You should pick up a turkey Baster, so much less of an annoyance to clean.

 

Here is my question and point of this thread....what am I doing wrong with the vacuum and is there a better way to suck debris off the gravel more effectively? Do people sometimes temporarily move the fish, and rinse the gravel in separate conditioned water (I assume no as it could throw the tank balance off). By the time 1/4 water is left there is a lot of debris floating around in the water....enough dirt simply does not seem to shoot up through the pump. Plus I don't even have enough time to get the pump around the whole tank. General tips and tricks are much appreciated.

Basically stick the vacuum down in the gravel to the bottom of the tank, and leave it there until all the junk has floated up and has been sucked up, then move it to the next spot do it systematically, and to start I would do a 50% water change so you get the whole substrate. Then you can just do lighter 25% water changes once you've got all the junk out to start. Also, all the dirt floating in the water, turn on your filter as soon as you can after you've filled it up, and throw some filter floss in it. It should suck up all the debris in the water column and the floss will catch it. A lot of it is practice as well.

 

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Actually one other thing that comes to mind - I am still using the original filter and have been cleaning it in tank water. Would it perhaps be time to renew my filter too?

 

The original filter media? Yes, I would get another cartridge and go ahead and put it behind the one you have now for 2-3 weeks to let bacteria transfer. It would be best if you could get a filtration media just for biological like bioballs or ceramic pellets, and use those just for bacteria, and then get one of those big bags of super cheap filter floss for mechanical filtration.

 

You shouldn’t have any problems returning with amazon? You could always just go to your orders and select return product, pick your reason, print label, and ship the item. Given that you’re within the time for returning it, havn’t already done something like this and still have the box and stuff.