Do all your water changes including gravel vacuuming?

[jarrodaden]

There are a wide variety of opinions on the frequency and sizes of water changes.

My question is - Do all of your water changes include gravel vacuuming? If not, how often do you run the vacuum?

[76dragon]

I know its bad, but I only gravel vac once in a while. I do massive water change twice a week though.

[PhishPhreek]

My livingroom "Show" tank is 105g 4' tank w/ plants & many Tetras. I use 2 Emperor 400 HOBs and a UG filter w/ dual power heads. I don't vacuum the gravel.

[wesleydnunder]

5 of my 7 tanks are planted and don't get gravel vac at all. The discus tank has pfs substrate and gets vacced once a week. The 55 tang tank has blasting sand substrate and gets vacced at least every other week.

Mark

[danielp]

I vacuum everytime.

My 75 is a busy tank with live plants co2 injection and it's bordeline overstocked so I feel that it's important to do it.

I think it also helps control ammonia and nitrate levels.

[algarciajr]

I also vacuum every water change.

[Complexity]

I vacuum every time, as well, including my planted tanks.

For my planted tanks, I do not plunge the vacuum deep into the substrate. I simply hover on top to pick up the crud on the surface. I will sometimes plunge into a plant (such as a carpet plant or java moss) to pull crud out of it since they tend to capture and hold more crud.

On my 90g with sand, I vacuum much more vigorously. I first try to pick up whatever is on the surface, and then I plunge into the sand. I do this primarily to keep the sand stirred up. It keeps the sand soft and prevents a build up of algae on the surface layer.

I have just started blowing out the caves to get the crud out of them, as well. I work harder on my 90g to clean out the crud because of the nature of the tank. With only a few plants and a substrate that keeps the crud on the surface combined with fish with high requirements for good water quality, I think it's extra important to pull out more of the crud in this tank than my other tanks.

I think whether you vacuum, how often you vacuum, and how thoroughly you vacuum depends greatly on the type of tank and fish you have. This may account for the variety of answers to this question. There is no single answer that fits all tanks.

[geoff_tropheus]

In the tanks I have with Gravel, I do vaccum everytime.

The only time I would suggest not doing it, is for about 1-2 months after tank setup.

[fshfrk]

If I had any gravel I would vacuum often. I only use pool filter sand and only a thin layer. Sometimes I will run my hand thru it and stir it up. Then do the water change. I only vac up the poo on the surface of the sand when the tank is almost refilled from the w/c. I only do this once a month.

[madehtsobi]

i vacuum everytime....

[supadave]

I vacuum everytime.

[FrontosaurusRex]

I vacuum almost every day. I dont do water changes every day, but the poo at the bottom of the tank destroys my universe so I clean it every chance I get. I usually do my big water change every Monday where I move all the rocks and vacuum under all of them, clean any algea, clean my filters, and i empty at least 50% of the water.