# Gravel vacuum with water change?



## Magdelaine (Apr 9, 2005)

I have been cleaning my gravel with my weekly water change, mostly because of my diatom problem (I'm trying to get rid of it as much as possible). I both vacuum and stir it so that the particles get cleaned out with the filter. It occurred to me that I may not want to do this on a regular basis. (I can't believe how dirty the gravel gets in a week; maybe I'm feeding too much?)

What do you all do?


----------



## Imbrium (Feb 7, 2005)

I usually vacuum the gravel when I do water changes, about once a week. My gravel never gets all that dirty though. You might try feeding a little less.


----------



## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

As you think if your gravel is getting that dirty try cutting back on your feeding. You can usually get away with vaccuming about 1/2 the gravel each cleaning.


----------



## Magdelaine (Apr 9, 2005)

I usually feed flake food in the am and worms in the pm. Maybe only once a day would be enough?


----------



## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

i vaccum the gravel every week with a waterchange, sometimes it is a little extra dirty. I suggest that you do cut back on feeding, maybe switch to every other day. (if you feed everyday now)


----------



## Imbrium (Feb 7, 2005)

I usually feed once a day, every day.


----------



## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

I feed live food for every 2 days. Do vacuuming 1/week as well as partial water changes. But my problem is that my gravel is messed up by algea!


----------



## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

i vacum when i do water changes


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I tend to feed Brine Shrimp in the morning about every other day and flakes at night everyday. But I always vaccum the gravel when I do water changes (I never thought of just taking the water out without that vaccum). But it seems to be with it with all of the stuff that comes up when you vaccum, I feel a lot better after I do it cuz then I know the tank is pretty clean.


----------



## cheechee65 (Jun 13, 2005)

I vacuum all of my gravel with each water change which is about 25-30% weekly. My fish seem to be fine with this.


----------



## MiSo (May 3, 2005)

i switched to sand because i hated how much gunk got inbetween the gravel.
sand is alot easier to keep clean believe it or not.
no space for food to fall into so the cory cats do a great job for keeping the bottom clean. i use sand in two of my tanks and the bottom is always clean.

1 5lb bag cost about $3-4 from lfs.


----------



## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

MiSo said:


> i switched to sand because i hated how much gunk got inbetween the gravel.
> sand is alot easier to keep clean believe it or not.
> no space for food to fall into so the cory cats do a great job for keeping the bottom clean. i use sand in two of my tanks and the bottom is always clean.
> 
> 1 5lb bag cost about $3-4 from lfs.


thats about how much gravel costs around here. just as you said, one 5lb bag. how to you wash the sand before you put it in the tank


----------



## MiSo (May 3, 2005)

this sand is very easy to wash.

i bought two bags and one bag was washed easier than the other, i dont know why.
but i just rinsed them in a bucket in the tub until all the sand sank and stayed on the bottom. i kept swirling the water around to make sure any free floating grains of sand would rise. i just skimmed these off the top. very little sand is lost though as most will sink.
actually in one of the bags, no sand was lost because it all sank, but in one bag, i did have to skim some off the top of the water.
after rinsing about 3 times i put the sand into my tanks.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Does the sand seem to create problems for the filter or does it generally stay at the bottome of the tank. I bought a 25 lb bag of gravel for my tank for 10 bucks at Wal-Mart so I thought that was the best way to go. I think for my 55 gallon tank though I'll use sand. It helps more with planted tanks too right, especially if I get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails in there too with Corys right?


----------



## Ghetto (Jun 10, 2005)

could you use sand for a betta?


----------



## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

cool i figured it was much more complicated than that, and that most of it would go down that drain, haha


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Do you have to clean the sand every few weeks? I know you said that it is kept relatively clean but what happens to the feces. Will the catfish and snails take that up as well so you basically never have to clean it like you have to vaccum the gravel every week?


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

The feces rest on top unlike gravel, and you need to skim the top of the sand while doing a water change to be rid of it. no fish will eat poop and if he does its an accident


----------



## MiSo (May 3, 2005)

sand generally stays on the bottom. 
sometimes a fish will dash and kicks sand up but it settles down right after. 
there is no cloudyness when dealing with sand.

i vacuum the sand everytime i change the water. i just hover over the sand to pick waste up. sometimes you'll have to swish the water around to kick waste up but you lose very little sand. atmost you'll maybe 1-2 pinches of sand. 

sometimes if i see waste on the bottom and i feel like fishing it out, i'll use a brine shrimp net to collect the waste.


----------

