Water Changes - How Often?

So 2 questions.

How often do you guys do water changes?

And

How often do you guys vacuum the gravel?

I go every couple of weeks on vacuuming, basically I do water change than but by the time I vacuum tank I’m almost at 50% water left. While I’m vacuuming I’m not getting much and garbage up and within 3 days of doing this I usually have one fish that dies.

Should I vacuum maybe once a month and do a 10% water change weekly. Just kind of worry when I vacuum because I have 2 clowns that I don’t want dying. Their my favorite fish in the tank.

 

I would do 20-50% WCs weekly and gravel vacs biweekly.

Then every month, do a deep clean.

 

I gravel vac every week when I do my WCs. Usually take out 30-50% of the water. I am always amazed by how much stuff gets down there, so I try to remove it before it builds up too much.

I think your issue is that you are only doing WC "once every few weeks." If you start doing more frequent WC you probably won't have your fish die. Also, just making sure but your filter media never comes in contact with unconditioned water, right?

 

I do bI weekly water changes. I’ll do sand cleaning maybe once a month.

 

Depending on your water parameters.
If you have low kH and your pH drops between changes I'd do them smaller and more frequently.
If you have a high bioload I'd do larger and more frequently.
If you have low bioload and nitrAte stays under 20ppm do it bi-weekly if the pH is stable.

Depends on a lot of factors how often you should do it. As for vacuuming, try just doing a small portion of the tank each time so that by the end of a month you've done the whole thing. Keep your sections on rotation if you don't pick much up and don't need to change much water.

 

Thanks, maybe I’ll start doing water changes weekly and do 10-20%. Each change do section of tank and by end of month basically hit whole tank. I was surprised. Last one was about 3 weeks ago and not much garbage came up. Maybe doing them so infrequently I’m actually shocking the fish with them. I do do a conditioner and bacteria supplement every-time I do.