In Tank Gravel Cleaning

[anon02]

Does anyone have a link to a good in depth guide to in tank gravel cleaing ?

Or can someone please describe how I should go about it ?

I`ve spent what seems like hours trawling through the search facility without any luck

Thanks

 

[Curiosity101]

Well first off you need some form of syphon... presuming you have one of those?
And if it's proper gravel, not sandy/really really fine gravel, then it's a simple case of getting the syphon going by pumping it up and down in the water to get the suction going. Then quickly 'hoover' the top level of the gravel, then shove it into the gravel and jiggle it around to try and get out any dirt that's settled far down.

 

[Gilli]

Make sure you get a self start gravel vac like the one C has mentioned, then all you need to do is shake it to start the process. I do a really thorough gravel vac once a week when I do my water change , I take out all the rocks ornaments etc. Make sure you bury the vac deep in the gravel and as it sucks up the gravel lift the vac and the gravel will drop back down while the debris contines to get sucked up and out of the tank. Just keep going until you cant see much muck being sucked up.

 

[anon02]

Make sure you get a self start gravel vac like the one C has mentioned, then all you need to do is shake it to start the process. I do a really thorough gravel vac once a week when I do my water change , I take out all the rocks ornaments etc. Make sure you bury the vac deep in the gravel and as it sucks up the gravel lift the vac and the gravel will drop back down while the debris contines to get sucked up and out of the tank. Just keep going until you cant see much muck being sucked up.

Thanks guys, I have a gravel vac, it was the removing rocks etc that I wasn`t sure about, I`m presuming I can leave the plants in ?

 

[Curiosity101]

You can unless you fancy doing a massive tank re-scape. Tbh it's not a bad idea to let a bit of dirt build up in the gravel around roots anyways. As it breaks down it leeches minerals and such that the roots can absorb.

 

[Gilli]

By removing the rocks/ornaments it makes it easier for you to vac, plus debris can fall behind them in spaces where your gravel vac is too big to get in.

 

[Gvilleguy]

No one else mentioned this, but I only vacuum half of my tank gravel at each weekly water change. This is because by the time I thoroughly vacuum about half of the bottom (using the techniques mentioned above), I end up with a 25-30% water change. I don't want to do more than that each week.

I remove all ornaments and plants from area being cleaned so that I can really dig the vac down into the gravel and let it do its job.

So I end up cleaning the entire tank bottom every 2 weeks, and this seems to work okay in my 26G/98L.

 

[anon02]

No one else mentioned this, but I only vacuum half of my tank gravel at each weekly water change. This is because by the time I thoroughly vacuum about half of the bottom (using the techniques mentioned above), I end up with a 25-30% water change. I don't want to do more than that each week.

I remove all ornaments and plants from area being cleaned so that I can really dig the vac down into the gravel and let it do its job.

So I end up cleaning the entire tank bottom every 2 weeks, and this seems to work okay in my 26G/98L.

I got one of those with the bag option so you can either just vac or wc, they`re on ebay for a couple of quid

 

[Avinitlarge]

Ive got a gravel vac connected to a hose pipe that drains the water onto the garden. I find you can do a better job cleaning the gravel as you are not watching the bucket for overflowing. I do 3 or 4 1/4 water changes every week. I only vac the gravel I can get to without disturbing the plants and wood but every few months I remove everthing from the tank and vac all of the gravel.

 

[james_fish]

No one else mentioned this, but I only vacuum half of my tank gravel at each weekly water change. This is because by the time I thoroughly vacuum about half of the bottom (using the techniques mentioned above), I end up with a 25-30% water change. I don't want to do more than that each week.

I remove all ornaments and plants from area being cleaned so that I can really dig the vac down into the gravel and let it do its job.

So I end up cleaning the entire tank bottom every 2 weeks, and this seems to work okay in my 26G/98L.

I also use this method. I do a third every week, so a full gravel clean would take three weeks normally.

James.