What happens if you clean the gravel in your tank too often?

Question

Will it kill off fish?

Answer 1

Yes. In the gravel you'll find most of the bacteria that break down waste and convert ammonia ultimately into nitrate. If you clean too often or to much, you remove too much of the bacteria.
I clean 1/2 every week, alternating left and right in my tropicals. You could do the whole tank every two weeks. I remove about 15% each time, a very thorough cleaning... If you were to do the entire tank at once, I'd still take no more than 25%.
Goldfish on the other hand are very messy, I'd do 25-30% every week, the whole tank.

Answer 2

*Future Veterinarian* pretty well summed it up, you can't clean the gravel too much. You will not kill or remove the bacteria by vacuuming the tank and you will remove the waste and that's always a good thing. Once a week is usually enough though.

MM

Answer 3

To answer your question...maybe...By cleaning the gravel too often you are removing the helpful bacteria that is in the tank. This bacteria help keep all of the bad things(i.e. ammonia and nitrite) at a safe level. High levels of ammonia and nitrite could kill your fish.

Cleaning is good, but don't overdo it :)

Answer 4

the previous posters pretty much summed it all up

but no one mentioned, you should clean it every 1-2 weeks... all depends on what you have in the tank, live plants, number of fish. if ur over feeding them you'd want to clean more often...

Answer 5

If you clean the tank too often, the biological balance will not be achieved. What that means is that as the fish waste accumulates, it will not properly break down. This could lead to high levels of nitrites and ammonia...also changes in Ph that will stress the fish out and could kill them.

Answer 6

it may not kill your fish right away, but if you get rid of all of the good bacteria in the tank, they could die. it would probably take a LOT of cleaning to do this, because bacteria reproduce very quickly. once or twice a week is probably enough. i'm in an advanced biology class right now and we are learning all about good vs bad bacteria. even humans have to have bacteria to survive. we have bacteria in things we eat, and in our body. it is very similar for fish.