Do you gravel vac during every water change?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
i dont always vac my tanks. My green terror tank the only one i vac on a weekly bassis just because between him and the pleco the tank gets very messy. however i only vac my planted tank (with Bolivian Rams) every other week, and the 4 others only when i start to see a build up...usely every other week too. I also tend to do masive water changes tooo (as my neighbor puts it) about 50-60% except the b.rams which get 20-30%. lol
 
I will never own a gravel vac again, nor have gravel for substrate! With sand for substrate, everything sits on top. Sand plus a water flow that pushes all waste to one end allows me to remove all waste in a couple of minutes. Like nutcase said, I spend most of my time just watching and waiting for it to drain.
 
I don't gravel vac, I sand vac after hovering over the surface to get rid of the majority of waste. The amount of air that comes out of the sand is quite surprising which is why I don't just skim the surface.
 
nc_nutcase;3402022; said:
I found the need to gravel vac with every weekly water change...

And I found the need to be more of a pain than I was comfortable with...

Now that I've switched to sand, I start a siphon, use a powerhead or my hand to swoosh waste out of the decor, clean the surface of the sand, then leave the hose to drain whatever else is needed...

In my gravel days, I used to find I would drain the volume of water I intended but still wasn't finished vacuuming...

Now that I use sand, cleaning the substrate goes quick and I end up spending half of my "water change" time sitting on the couch...

Snad & a long hose sure is an improvement over gravel vacs and carrying buckets... I sure don't miss 'the good ole days'...
Click to expand...


I couldn't agree more...and if I could I would!

I have always had gravel in my fresh tanks until this 240 I just setup. With the sane I never vac it. I try sometimes but never get anything out of it. The poo sits on the top of the sand and I just suck out the one or two piles in the corner. I have 50 fish in the tank and feed several small meals a day and never vac the sand...my nitrates are never more than 5ppm with weekly or every 2 weeks a 50% change...drain and fill.

Theres a key to all this too I think...fine sand...the sand I use is estes ultrareef sand. My sister has tahitin moon but that is not small enough...she has to vac all the time with poo everywhere and 8 fish.
 
bitteraspects;3402177; said:
EVERY TIME!
there is no excuse not to IMO. you already made the commitment to doing the WC, why not be thorough? clean the glass, vacuum the gravel, clean the filter, etc. its only a few minutes out of your day.
Click to expand...
EXACTLY, ITS LIKE USING THE TOILET FOR A WEEK OR 2 THEN DRAINING THE WATER AND FILLING IT BACK UP WITH ALL THAT CRAP IN IT, IT MAY BE NEW WATER BUT LEAVING ALL THE WASTE BEHIND SORTA NEGATES IT.
 
What is gravel vac and how do you do it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom