Vacuuming techniques

[Joel Armstrong]

Hi,

I am curious about people's techniques when it comes to vacuuming the tank.

I have been using a turkey baster with a short hose attached to the turkey baster and then syphon and vacuum into a 30 litre bucket. Empty bucket and repeat.

I'm guessing there may be a way to make this a little more convenient to avoid having to haul numerous buckets of water outside or to the sink?

Do you guys use a turkey baster?

What is your method when it comes to vacuuming?

What equipment do you use to vacuum?

Thank you for any feedback you're willing to share.

 

[Freshflora]

Hi,

I am curious about people's techniques when it comes to vacuuming the tank.

I have been using a turkey baster with a short hose attached to the turkey baster and then syphon and vacuum into a 30 litre bucket. Empty bucket and repeat.

I'm guessing there may be a way to make this a little more convenient to avoid having to haul numerous buckets of water outside or to the sink?

Do you guys use a turkey baster?

What is your method when it comes to vacuuming?

What equipment do you use to vacuum?

Thank you for any feedback you're willing to share.

I use a python + a turkey baster. Also sometimes and in some parts of my tank I just wave the siphon in circular motions to stir up debris. I like to always use the turkey baster along the glass though. Only time I use a bucket is if the tank is small enough to only require 1 bucket trip for the water change. If you take a look at my tank of the month thread from November, I go over how I personally handle vacuuming and my frequency of deeper vacuuming towards the bottom of the comments.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

I use a python + a turkey baster. Also sometimes and in some parts of my tank I just wave the siphon in circular motions to stir up debris. I like to always use the turkey baster along the glass though. Only time I use a bucket is if the tank is small enough to only require 1 bucket trip for the water change. If you take a look at my tank of the month thread from November, I go over how I personally handle vacuuming and my frequency of deeper vacuuming towards the bottom of the comments.

Hi, and thank you for your response.

I have plenty of shrimp in my tank, so I've been checking the bucket prior to emptying, in case I've syphoned up some shrimp.

I'll check out your tank of the month thread again.

Thanks

 

[Art]

This is what I use while I'm doing the water change. I don't vacuum 100% of the gravel with every water change. I do about 25% each time so as to not impact the substrate's ecosystem too much as one time.

I save the turkey baster to blow off hardscape. A toothbrush to scrub hardscape and aquarium corners.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

View attachment 728
This is what I use while I'm doing the water change. I don't vacuum 100% of the gravel with every water change. I do about 25% each time so as to not impact the substrate's ecosystem too much as one time.

I save the turkey baster to blow off hardscape. A toothbrush to scrub hardscape and aquarium corners.

Thanks Art,

I appreciate your feedback. I think I need to revise and improve my technique then. When I've used the gravel cleaner as pictured above, I tend to suck up some of the soil in my tank. (I'm using ADA new version II soil).

I guess I need to hover over the soil a little more lightly?

 

[Art]

Thanks Art,

I appreciate your feedback. I think I need to revise and improve my technique then. When I've used the gravel cleaner as pictured above, I tend to suck up some of the soil in my tank. (I'm using ADA new version II soil).

I guess I need to hover over the soil a little more lightly?

ADA AquaSoil is one you want to be very careful with. It will disintegrate over time and is very rich in ammonia at the beginning. I very lightly vacuum to remove just the bigger detritus items that accumulate there.

When you re-plant (pull out the plant and plant the tops), you will get a plum of detritus into your water column. I try to mitigate this by having my vacuum hose in one hand and sucking up the plume as much as possible. Just another tip.

 

[ayman.roshdy]

Hi,

I am curious about people's techniques when it comes to vacuuming the tank.

I have been using a turkey baster with a short hose attached to the turkey baster and then syphon and vacuum into a 30 litre bucket. Empty bucket and repeat.

I'm guessing there may be a way to make this a little more convenient to avoid having to haul numerous buckets of water outside or to the sink?

Do you guys use a turkey baster?

What is your method when it comes to vacuuming?

What equipment do you use to vacuum?

Thank you for any feedback you're willing to share.

I clean the tank on a weekly basis but I don't vacuum clean the gravel every week, I do this like every 3 - 4 weeks and things seem to be ok
To vacuum clean the gravel I use mainly this tool:



It works very good, the plastic cup at one end goes into the gravel, and moving it up and down the gravel a few times clean it 100%
I don't care much to use a turkey baster although I think it must be very efficient, I only move the above vacuum cleaner on top of the hardscape and the small grooves ... etc. and it pulls up any waste material

 

[Joel Armstrong]

ADA AquaSoil is one you want to be very careful with. It will disintegrate over time and is very rich in ammonia at the beginning. I very lightly vacuum to remove just the bigger detritus items that accumulate there.

When you re-plant (pull out the plant and plant the tops), you will get a plum of detritus into your water column. I try to mitigate this by having my vacuum hose in one hand and sucking up the plume as much as possible. Just another tip.

Hi Art,

Thanks for the tips. Appreciated.
When I have uprooted and replanted some tops I do vacuum as quickly as I can.
Perhaps I should have chosen a different soil?

 

[Joel Armstrong]

ADA AquaSoil is one you want to be very careful with. It will disintegrate over time and is very rich in ammonia at the beginning. I very lightly vacuum to remove just the bigger detritus items that accumulate there.

When you re-plant (pull out the plant and plant the tops), you will get a plum of detritus into your water column. I try to mitigate this by having my vacuum hose in one hand and sucking up the plume as much as possible. Just another tip.

Disappointing to hear about the soil disintegrating. I thought it was supposed to be good.

Hopefully I get some good use out of it before I need to swap it out?

You've used it before, or are using ADA soil?

What soil do you recommend instead?

 

[Joel Armstrong]

I clean the tank on a weekly basis but I don't vacuum clean the gravel every week, I do this like every 3 - 4 weeks and things seem to be ok
To vacuum clean the gravel I use mainly this tool:

View attachment 736

It works very good, the plastic cup at one end goes into the gravel, and moving it up and down the gravel a few times clean it 100%
I don't care much to use a turkey baster although I think it must be very efficient, I only move the above vacuum cleaner on top of the hardscape and the small grooves ... etc. and it pulls up any waste material

Hi,

Do you actually use gravel or soil in your tank?

Edit. I just read your tank build thread. Black gravel and root tabs.

Cheers

 

[Art]

Hi Art,

Thanks for the tips. Appreciated.
When I have uprooted and replanted some tops I do vacuum as quickly as I can.
Perhaps I should have chosen a different soil?

No no. I love AquaSoil. You just need to know it's particularities and manage them.

 

[Art]

Disappointing to hear about the soil disintegrating. I thought it was supposed to be good.

Hopefully I get some good use out of it before I need to swap it out?

You've used it before, or are using ADA soil?

What soil do you recommend instead?

Most soil substrates are essentially baked clay. Over time, the individual pieces tend to get mushed. It just comes with the territory.

That being said, it does take quite a bit of time for this to happen. I've had ADA AquaSoil for over 5 years and it was still good.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

Most soil substrates are essentially baked clay. Over time, the individual pieces tend to get mushed. It just comes with the territory.

That being said, it does take quite a bit of time for this to happen. I've had ADA AquaSoil for over 5 years and it was still good.

Thanks Art,

I think I had just misunderstood you a little previously.

 

[GreggZ]

I think this is a good topic for discussion. Substrate health has a lot to with tank health.

Like most things in this hobby, the devil is in the details. For regular weekly vacuuming I use a python to lightly skim the surface, not going deeply at all. Mostly trying to draw out the detritus, that has built up anywhere. I also use the turkey baster method on some parts of the tank, mainly the foreground around the plant groupings there and along the front glass. Again nothing too violent. You really don't want to disturb the substrate down very deep on any regular basis. It releases lots of stuff into the water column and can disrupt the beneficial bacteria. This can lead to algae faster than a change in dosing ever could.

Fortunate for me I have a window right near the tank, so when I vac I just send it out the window. The landscaping near there loves it!

If I am pulling up a group of plants that has been there for a long time, it's a good time to hit that area a little harder going maybe a 1/2" into the soil. With a thick bunch of plants a lot of stuff can build up under there. But you don't want to do that all over the tank at one time.

And whenever you vacuum or pull up groupings it should always be followed by a good solid change. Every time.

Now that is what I do for regular weekly maintenance. But then there is longer term maintenance. About every six months or so I do a major reset of the substrate. That means pulling out all of the plants and doing a good deep vacuum. Things are a little rocky for a week or so after but then the beneficial bacteria catches up and the tank is back on auto pilot for a while.

Anway that's what works for me. I am interested to hear of other techniques and what people find works best for them.

 

[Freshflora]

I think this is a good topic for discussion. Substrate health has a lot to with tank health.

Like most things in this hobby, the devil is in the details. For regular weekly vacuuming I use a python to lightly skim the surface, not going deeply at all. Mostly trying to draw out the detritus, that has built up anywhere. I also use the turkey baster method on some parts of the tank, mainly the foreground around the plant groupings there and along the front glass. Again nothing too violent. You really don't want to disturb the substrate down very deep on any regular basis. It releases lots of stuff into the water column and can disrupt the beneficial bacteria. This can lead to algae faster than a change in dosing ever could.

Fortunate for me I have a window right near the tank, so when I vac I just send it out the window. The landscaping near there loves it!

If I am pulling up a group of plants that has been there for a long time, it's a good time to hit that area a little harder going maybe a 1/2" into the soil. With a thick bunch of plants a lot of stuff can build up under there. But you don't want to do that all over the tank at one time.

And whenever you vacuum or pull up groupings it should always be followed by a good solid change. Every time.

Now that is what I do for regular weekly maintenance. But then there is longer term maintenance. About every six months or so I do a major reset of the substrate. That means pulling out all of the plants and doing a good deep vacuum. Things are a little rocky for a week or so after but then the beneficial bacteria catches up and the tank is back on auto pilot for a while.

Anway that's what works for me. I am interested to hear of other techniques and what people find works best for them.

How deep do you go when you do the major reset? Not to the bottom I’m assuming right?

 

[GreggZ]

How deep do you go when you do the major reset? Not to the bottom I’m assuming right?

Oh yes down to the bottom. It's a major reset of the tank. I have found if you do it every so often the tank glides along more easily for a good long time. After enough build up there is a LOT of gunk down there.

I started doing this after my soil was pretty old and couldn't diagnose what was going on. A serious reset cured things.

Marian is a big believer in this as well. But he does it more often than me.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

I think this is a good topic for discussion. Substrate health has a lot to with tank health.

Like most things in this hobby, the devil is in the details. For regular weekly vacuuming I use a python to lightly skim the surface, not going deeply at all. Mostly trying to draw out the detritus, that has built up anywhere. I also use the turkey baster method on some parts of the tank, mainly the foreground around the plant groupings there and along the front glass. Again nothing too violent. You really don't want to disturb the substrate down very deep on any regular basis. It releases lots of stuff into the water column and can disrupt the beneficial bacteria. This can lead to algae faster than a change in dosing ever could.

Fortunate for me I have a window right near the tank, so when I vac I just send it out the window. The landscaping near there loves it!

If I am pulling up a group of plants that has been there for a long time, it's a good time to hit that area a little harder going maybe a 1/2" into the soil. With a thick bunch of plants a lot of stuff can build up under there. But you don't want to do that all over the tank at one time.

And whenever you vacuum or pull up groupings it should always be followed by a good solid change. Every time.

Now that is what I do for regular weekly maintenance. But then there is longer term maintenance. About every six months or so I do a major reset of the substrate. That means pulling out all of the plants and doing a good deep vacuum. Things are a little rocky for a week or so after but then the beneficial bacteria catches up and the tank is back on auto pilot for a while.

Anway that's what works for me. I am interested to hear of other techniques and what people find works best for them.

Hi Gregg,

Thanks for your detailed response here. Greatly appreciated.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

Oh yes down to the bottom. It's a major reset of the tank. I have found if you do it every so often the tank glides along more easily for a good long time. After enough build up there is a LOT of gunk down there.

I started doing this after my soil was pretty old and couldn't diagnose what was going on. A serious reset cured things.

Marian is a big believer in this as well. But he does it more often than me.

@GreggZ, after you've completed the reset of the tank, do you continue with the same light intensity and duration to which you were using prior to the reset?

 

[Art]

Now that is what I do for regular weekly maintenance. But then there is longer term maintenance. About every six months or so I do a major reset of the substrate. That means pulling out all of the plants and doing a good deep vacuum. Things are a little rocky for a week or so after but then the beneficial bacteria catches up and the tank is back on auto pilot for a while.

I've never done this. May I ask why you do this, Gregg? What will happen if you let it go for a year, for example?

 

[Art]

Oh yes down to the bottom. It's a major reset of the tank. I have found if you do it every so often the tank glides along more easily for a good long time. After enough build up there is a LOT of gunk down there.

I started doing this after my soil was pretty old and couldn't diagnose what was going on. A serious reset cured things.

Marian is a big believer in this as well. But he does it more often than me.

OK so this answers my question. I have to learn to read all the way to the bottom before asking questions!