Water Change

[ltkettch17]

When you do a water change, should you always vacuum/siphon the gravel?

I have an undergravel filter and I use small gravel for my substrate.

Thanks all,

 

[OldMan47]

Keeping the substrate clean is especially important in a UGF because it is your filter media. You also need to make sure that when you are done the substrate is left fairly level or you will get channeling flows in the UGF, the water will find the spots with the least resistance and that is where all the flow will end up. .

 

[waterdrop]

Agreed. Always cleaning the gravel at a water change is an important habit for all beginners to form I think, and even more important for UGFs just as OM47 has outlined. It can also be important to figure out a method to suck out all the debris that can form -under- the UGF filter plate. I've seen one description where a siphon tube -without- a wide gravel tube on it can be used to create a strong suction at some point on the plate slots and thereby suck up any muck that is forming under the plate. Afterward of course you level the gravel back out as OM47 describes.

~~waterdrop~~