Scared To Gravel Vac

This is a bit weird but I am not sure if I should gravel vac or not. The problem being that its been quite a long time since I did any gravel vac-ing and I don't want to stir up any bad stuff. My old vac broke and I just never replaced it. Actually thinking back I had a bad back and so we switched from buckets to a hose and we just never got a new vac. So we recently replaced one of our fx5s with an fx6 and got a free gravel vac with it. Everything in my Aquarium is doing fine at the moment but I do have some BBA maybe my dirty gravel isn't helping much. Any advise would be great thanks.

 

If you don't gravel vac then more bad stuff will build up and it will be worse when it finally does get stirred up.

 

So would you just do a bit at a time over the course of a few days or all together, its a big tank just under 200 gallons. also the vac attaches to the filter so doesn't remove water from the tank, will that make a difference ?

 

I would try to do as much as possible on the surface of the substrate then wait a few days and do a deeper gravel vac. Continue like that until it is reasonably clean.

 

Thank you for your help I will try that.

 

I would try and do a good cleaning at least every other month or so. Especially with gravel vs sand. You could also take a turkey baster and "blow" over the areas to loosen up the debris. If you don't get the stuff out, you'll end up with Detritus worms which are way worse than doing a good cleaning now and then.

 

Though detritus worms won't hurt your fish or your tank; they're just unsightly to some.

 

Though detritus worms won't hurt your fish or your tank; they're just unsightly to some.

Unsightly? That's an understatement. They're gross and should never happen in a normally clean tank! If you are getting these worms, then that means you need to clean more often.
Safe for the fish? probably but equally disgusting! Period!

 

Unsightly? That's an understatement. They're gross and should never happen in a normally clean tank! If you are getting these worms, then that means you need to clean more often.
Safe for the fish? probably but equally disgusting! Period!

I'm with you on that one! I can't handle worms!

 

They don't bother me. Granted, I don't have any of them in my tanks, but they're a part of a natural environment. They are present in the wild, after all

 

I didn't even realise you could get worms in a fresh water aquarium, sounds nasty. I'm going to start gravel vac-ing today, and do a big water change afterwards.

 

If its been that long I would gravel vac a quater of your tank each time just incase you alter your water chemistry