Gravel cleaning

[slt]

hi, all.
just been browsing the forum , and noticed a little debate
going on about gravel cleaning. since using internal filters
i took a lot of the gravel out of the tank, leaving just 1/4 inch
my plants are fixed to bog wood and the rest in pots,
placed between rocks.my question is do i still vac the gravel
weekly or should it be done less frequent. mrv mentioned
carbon not been left in the filter , only to aid removing
any medications that have been used, well both my filters
use carbon as well as sponge. i change the carbon every
4 weeks, i was told that even carbon can be a good surface
for the benifical bacteria to colonize, making carbon a good
biomedia, is this so.
thanks slt,

 

[Dragonslair]

To the question of gravel cleaning, I would go with Pete on this one. His comments seem logical and I have to bow down to his experience in these matters. Less than a weekly clean is sufficient.It also depends have much you have overfed your occupants and what food is left on the bottom. Does the gravel "look" dirty? Why clean gravel and disturb the biological balance just becacuse the book tells you to. It's got to be a matter of personal feel,and common sense. Carbon is a good biomedia and it certainly helps in absorbing any pollutants out of the water. If you removed the carbon, you would immediatly notice spikes in all your pollutant levels. No matter how well the good bacteria has matured, you need an extra chem.absorber to take up the chems. in the water. The reason I say this is because out in the wide waters the chemicals that fish produce are immediately diluted and continually dispersed. No matter how well the fish tank is filtered and the water moved, the pollutants cannot dilute until a water change and your fish are enclosed in that environment. So it is necessary,in my opinion to add carbon or similar to filter out the chems. and "clean" the water too.
There was a prog. a short while back where Ray Mears had with him some carbon which he made and using that and a plastic bottle device, which he also made, he was able to drink what was muddy water from a stream. He filtered the water through the carbon and sand and finally let it settle and the water was clean. I don't know about taste, but it kept him going for another few days. Proof that carbon does work.

 

[pete]

Well ................. yes i suppose that carbon could house bacteria but i can think of plenty of better medias lol

As for using it only when wanting to take meds etc out of the water this is true although Juwel actually recommend replacing it every 4 weeks as do Fluval for thier filters but i feel that this is just a money spinner and is not nessacary :what: , personaly i only use carbon sponges etc supplied with filters when they are new and remove them once they are recommended for replacement and never refit any of them again lol

If i need to strip meds etc from the water i just add a bag of carbon to one of the filters until the meds are removed and then discard it

There are many people who swear by using carbon and change it religiously but i personaly dont see the point as the space taken up by the carbon can be filled with biological media thus giving the systems biological filtration a real boost and benefiting the system far more than using carbon

But again i suppose its a case of "whatever works for you" lol :laugh:

 

[Dragonslair]

For those oldies on the forum you'll know what I'm talking about when I tell you that I purchased a small bottle of purigen by post from the states. Apparently not many stockists in the U.K. I read up about after our "friend" told us about it in one of the forums. It is damn good stuff. I bagged it in a net bag and placed it in the filter. It not only strips the chems from the water, it strips all particulates too. The water is absolutely crystal clear. If it wasn't for the bubbles you would think the fish were floating on air. It has stripped everything and highly polished the water. Excellent stuff. Expensive but well worth it I think. (Approx conversion.£13.95-250ml bottle of granules.)

 

[pete]

COOL

Might have to get me some of that lol :laugh:

 

[Great Lakes]

Back to gravel, I use a larger natural looking gravel. It hardly ever looks dirty, I am amazed at times how much junk comes out when I do vacuum.

 

[slt]

hi &thanks to you all for your repllys,
yes dragonslair, my eldest daughter called in on saturday
and told me about the program you mentioned, was anoyed
i'd missed it. will have to look round aquatics for purigen,
sounds brilliant stuff i've never heard of it before. shall cut
back on gravel vacs, don't over feed my fish so there is no
waste food on the bottom.

thanks slt

 

[Dragonslair]

:love: