# How to vacuum a shrimp tank?



## Fdsh5 (Jan 3, 2012)

I thought that was what the shrimp were for. Lol. I use a small hand vac a put a net on the other end to catch any shrimplets that might get sucked out. Works for me. I only gravel vac like once every two months. I may never do it again since I put a glass food dish in the tank.


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

I never touch my substrate in the shrimp tank in fear that it's going to release something and cause an ammonia spike. I just take the water from the top and siphon off any dead leaves or plants.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

i only gravel vac'd the feeding area until i placed feeding dishes in each tank. now i just take a small airline tube to suck out dead plant debris laying on the substrate since the mts and shrimp dont reap any benefit from it being there. i do however leave the shells of the molts as its suppose to add calcium back.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I just siphon water from the tops of my tanks. I asked this question like back in Sept 2011 and everyone said to not vaccum near the substrate either.


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## ZombieSix (Feb 2, 2012)

never have vacuumed my substrate and have had a lovely blue pearl colony growing for over a year.


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

I just give the plants a lil shake to loosen up any algae and stuff and suck up dirty water. I figure the pest snails, assassins and habrosus bros alongside my shreemps should keep things pretty okay down there. I also use a white bucket and check the bucket under a light just to be sure I didn't suck anyone up.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

The reason people don't vac along the gravel is due to baby shrimps and possibility of releasing a bacterial cloud. Even if you were to suck up the water into a white bucket you woulldn't see baby shrimps that well .

There's really no point to vac'ing along the bottom of the tank as the nitrates/nitrites/ammonia would be dissolved evenly throughout the tank anyway.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Thank you all, something for me to think about.



diwu13 said:


> There's really no point to vac'ing along the bottom of the tank as the nitrates/nitrites/ammonia would be dissolved evenly throughout the tank anyway.


Just trying to pick up detritus off the bottom.


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## ChadRamsey (Nov 3, 2011)

i am going to resurrect this old thread

i have PFS in my RCS tank, and i have an accumilation of mulm around certian areas. Around the base of DW, rocks and under ferns ans crypts. I do not have any baby shrimp atm that i know of. 

I have used a scrubbie, doubled up, over the end of the hose held on with a rubber band. BUT the suction is pretty substantial still and i really dont want to suck up any little shrimps.


Any other options?


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

On occasion I will vacuum my neo tanks during water changes. I run the siphon to a 5g bucket and then let the mulm settle while I look in the bucket to see any small shrimp.

Neos can handle it fine. Not sure about more sensitive shrimp though.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

Swing 1" above the substrate to stir up the dirty stuff then siphon away.... only do it in a small area so you don't disturb the substrate too much. And be super careful about them baby shrimps.... I only "deep siphon" neo tanks too, and after the last time doing so two days ago on my orange tank, I saw 10 babies in the waste water tank..... I promised them I will be careful before I netted them back in --- so be careful.


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## mistahoo (Apr 25, 2012)

You can use an airline tubing as mentioned by someone earlier on this thread. It does wonders. You can't vacuum the soil or gravel with it, but you can definitely pick up any detritus or leftover food that's laying around on the substrate. It also minimizes the change of catching the shrimp. Although if you're not careful, you will sometimes catch baby shrimp in the tubing.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

All my shrimp tanks have a sand substrate so all the shrimp poop just collects and doesn't look appealing. I hover my airline tubing 1/2" above the substrate to grab any residual poop. Once a majority of the poop is out of the tank, I just take water from the top of the tank. I will also go in once a week to do a small water change to help clean up the poop. 

As previously posted, don't disturb the substrate as it could release ammonia into the tank and you'll have no more shrimp to stare at for hours


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## Fdsh5 (Jan 3, 2012)

I got tired of pulling cherry shrimp out of the bucket so now I put a panty hose over the end of the vacuum. Seems to work.


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

I've found using a disposable pipette (all in one plastic mini-turkey baster essentially--I rinse 'em and re-use 'em ) works well to blow the debris and poop out of hard to reach areas and off moss and delicate plants so it can be sucked up. Just squeeze the bulb and release under water to fill it, then gently "puff" away to drive the stuff along. 

The wood in my tank has, essentially, a cave under it--going in blind with air line tubing inevitably sucks up shrimp who hide in there. Blowing the debris out into the open area works much much better.


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## CherokeeNative (Dec 3, 2012)

Thanks everyone for sharing your techniques - this is one of the chores that I have been wondering about how it is done. Don't know that I feel too safe messing with the substrate since the babies are so teeny tiny, but the turkey baster thing sounds great for cleaning of certain areas.


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## 1aqumfish (Apr 19, 2009)

I use a piece of filter foam in the vacuum, but I don't push it into the substrate it’s just for water changes. My shrimp tank is always clean how could it get dirty, if I get a dead leaf I pull it out with my planting forceps. The only real maintenance is rinsing the foam pre-filter and water changes.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

I ended up using a turkey baster, dumping whatever I pick up into a white bowl. Helps me to see the shrimp and to save ADA's 'sand' substrate.


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