when cleaning fish tank gravel?

Question

should i get all my stuff out the aquarium

Answer 1

it depends on how clean you want it. sometimes i just get in the open areas, and leave the fish, sometimes i remeve the fish and the decor, but thats usualy only when the fish tank is really dirty!

its really up to you...how clean do you want/need the tank to be.

Answer 2

No. You can actually suction dirt out of the gravel while the water and everything is still in there. If you suck water into a tube all the dirt will come out too. The pebbles will fly around and release all the muck. My fish have been around for six years, and we've never had to really clean the gravel. My fish even like to eat the food scraps trapped at the bottom of the tank. They clean most of the gravel themselves.

Answer 3

No. Use your gravel vac to clean a section of your tank's gravel each time. You can move things around, but if your tank is heavily planted, or if you have big decorations that, when moved, will stir up a lot of muck, don't bother. Just work around them. I only do the front of my tank, because the back is thick with plants and hard to get to.

Oh, and 50% water change? That's an awful lot. Generally you should stick to about 30% at most, or you risk putting your tank in a mini-cycle.

Answer 4

You should only change half the water and not clean the gravel or rocks. Your tank needs the bacteria to keep ammonia and nitrite levels down, and most of that good bacteria is in the gravel and on the rocks.

Answer 5

normally i just move my stuff around kind of. Some dirt and debris in there is good for the fish bc it keeps all the nitrate levels and other chemical levels where they need to be. The tank does need some sort of bacteria in there to keep the fish healthy.

Answer 6

Take out the "toys" (decor) but just go around the fish.

Answer 7

You don't really need to, but if you want to then go.