I forgot to mention that I do have sand in my tanks. (Shouldn't have said gravel, sorry). I usually can't see much waste on the sand when I change my water. Will vacuuming the sand help that much vs. just draining the water in a tank like mine?
Doing Water Changes Without Vacuuming the Gravel?
- Thread starter asm129
- Start date
if you have 2 inches of gravel and do continuous water changes, do you have to vacuam to avoid anerobic bateria from settling in the lower regions? or does it create some kind of nitrate filter like a deep sand bed in a saltwater tank?
Personally i try and stir the sand bed of my tanks at least once a week hen doing water changes, the reason being that their can be anaerobic bacteria growing in the tank which can cause problems with water quality if you have a sand bed over 1.5" - 2" deep...
Good point. Fortunately, my stocklist is nothing but a bunch of diggers (cichlids and plecos) so my sand rarely ever stays in one place for very long, but I've heard you can get gas pockets if you don't sift your sand every now and again.
I've had tanks run over a year with no sand stirring... Wanted to see if the old "toxic gas pocket" rumor was true, as I hadn't ever read a verifiable account of it negatively affecting fish in an aquarium setting. My fish were completely fine, but boy does it smell when you remove it.
