# To vacuum or not to vacuum?



## newb (Apr 15, 2013)

Now that I've introduced plants, I was wondering if I should stop vacuuming gravel, and also how often should I replace filter cartridges? I don't want to remove the needed nutrients nor cause a nitrate spike. Thanks!


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Vacuuming Planted Tanks*



newb said:


> Now that I've introduced plants, I was wondering if I should stop vacuuming gravel, and also how often should I replace filter cartridges? I don't want to remove the needed nutrients nor cause a nitrate spike. Thanks!


Hello new...

I never vacuum the substrate. The dead plant and fish material that falls to the bottom eventually dissolves in the tank water and nourishes the plants. If you remove that material by vacuuming, you're removing the nutrients the plants need.

I change half the water in my tanks every week, so I don't need to service the filter or replace the media more than a couple of times a month. If you flush a lot of pure, treated tap water through the tank, the water stays pure and the filter equipment doesn't really get dirty, because it's just filtering pure water.

B


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## Jahn (Apr 26, 2013)

but shouldn't we at least vacuum up the dead stuff lying on top of the substrate? doesn't it contribute to that milky white heterotroph bacterial bloom (which I seem to be going under)?


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## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

BBradbury said:


> Hello new...
> 
> I never vacuum the substrate. The dead plant and fish material that falls to the bottom eventually dissolves in the tank water and nourishes the plants. If you remove that material by vacuuming, you're removing the nutrients the plants need.
> 
> ...


@newb

For some people this method works, not really everyones cup of tea though, if your dosing fertz a bit of a mute point.







Jahn said:


> but shouldn't we at least vacuum up the dead stuff lying on top of the substrate? doesn't it contribute to that milky white heterotroph bacterial bloom (which I seem to be going under)?


Generally I will just vacuum off the free stirring detritus you see thats just sitting on top swirling around etc.

The only thing I ever figured out that helps that bloom is water changes and time 

Personally I would go ahead and vacuum off the dead materials. Just don't push the vac down into the substrate 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## flight50 (Apr 17, 2012)

NWA-Planted said:


> @newb
> 
> Generally I will just vacuum off the free stirring detritus you see thats just sitting on top swirling around etc.
> 
> ...


This is what I do as well. If there is fish poo there, it goes as well. My tank is low tech for now so I dose here and there. But whatever lingers around at the bottom it gets sucked out. I have panada cories and I don't want them having to deal with debris all over the place. They are by far by favorite fish and I would do anything I can to keep the comfortable.

Typically you only skim the substrate to vacuum it. I stir up the debris with my suction tube to get the debris in the water column and out it goes.

As stated, it depends on your cup of tea. Alot of people don't vacuum. With my bottom feeders I do.


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

You could use a small tube like an airline tube and siphon the surface sludge that builds up in some areas, like the side panels of the tank. That is about it though, I would never fully vacuum a planted tank substrate bed.


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## Sgtreef (Jun 6, 2004)

Have to agree I never vacuum neither , and what I see on most of the ADA set up tanks no way to do it anyway.

Jeff


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## Jojoba (May 8, 2013)

I'm new at planted tanks so take this for what it's worth, but because my plants to cover large portions of my gravel I get my gravel vac deep into the gravel when it's pretty far from the plants and gently suck the poop off the top when I'm near the plants.


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## isellcars (Mar 4, 2012)

I have never vacuumed my tank a d it's been running for over a year. That is one if the reasons I started a planted tank. Another thing you can do is get a good clean up crew, I have amano shrimp, RCS, Cory cats, Bn pleco, clown pleco, khuli loaches, vampire and bamboo shrimp. I wanted a easy to take of tank and these guys do make it so much easier.


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## fahim6801 (Jun 1, 2012)

i never vacuum my tank, but do sometime over the moss


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

I vacuum plants, moss, and over driftwood. Maybe right over the substrate if there's some stuff.


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## Django (Jun 13, 2012)

I just siphoned most of my tank, avoiding plants. I have a gravel substrate, too big and too much. There was so much detritus down there that went up the vac. I hadn't been siphoning for a long time. I got some advice that too much dissolved organic compounds might be causing the Cyanobacteria bloom I've been wrestling with. The stuff just doesn't go away. I have been doing 50% water changes weekly. I have also been seeing bubbles coming up from the substrate. I plan to get rid of those.

Thanks.


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## stanjam (May 12, 2013)

I don't vacuum the gravel in my planted tanks, just remove some rotting veg that's making things look ugly. In my large cichlid tanks I do, except for Prince's tank. He was a giant tilapia. He was his own vacuum, and he would often fight the gravel tube, so I stopped lol.


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## ShyShrimpDoc (Jun 28, 2012)

My bumblebee and salvini are the same way. The bumblebee spends all day vacuuming the sand and spitting it everywhere. I vacuum my shrimp tanks (heavily planted) but only every few months. The plants seem to enjoy being left alone, and its too easy to suck up shrimplets.


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## stlouisan (Jun 8, 2006)

How often do you guys rinse off your filter media if you're not vacuuming the detritus? I find that at feeding time the fish stir up the detritus and it floats all over the tank in the current, eventually getting sucked up by the canister filter.


Btw: plecos poo waaaaay too much.


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

i dont vaccum the gravel, but i stick my gravel vaccum in and swirl it twice around and suck up anything that floats.


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## morelight (Jun 2, 2013)

i'm a newbee to planted tanks, but not new to fish and saltwater tanks. I vac up what i can see very lightly. I feel a cleaner tank is going to avoid algae blooms. Unless the tank is full of plants, the plants can't use up all that fish poo. So where is the disolved fish poo going, into your system and adding unnessessary nutrients causing an unbalanced tank and ready for some algae blooms. So i'm not stirring up the substrate, just a light vac.


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## gSTiTcH (Feb 21, 2013)

I started vacuuming after adding mystery snails due to way too much detritus in the water column, making the water look bad. However, I only vacuum bare gravel (no plants) and only penetrate by about 1/2".


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

I vacuum my substrate. Especially between sag plants for detritus gets in them. 

Filter pads I just rinse in old aquarium water or treated water. When they smell bad I replace 1.


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