# Water changes/gravel vac



## robert69 (Jul 16, 2005)

Hello all. I just recently finished decorating my tank with lots of plants, stone and driftwood. The fish love it, but it is very, very, very difficult to clean. Alot of waste is accumulating under the driftwood and stones. I would like to get some suggestions from all of you on tank maintenance. Do you remove all your plants, driftwood, etc in order to gravel vac? Or do you just gravel vac around the decorations? I was so used to keeping the tank bare and was very easy to clean.


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

I will take my driftwood out so I can get under it every once in a while. I take the vacuum cylinder off and just use the hose to get in between the plants the best I can. You can get most of it out.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

each time you clean, pick one item to lift up and clean under... if you keep up on water changes you should have no problem keeping things clean and in place


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## robert69 (Jul 16, 2005)

Great ideas! Thanks!


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## Tyrone5797 (Aug 25, 2007)

Yeh its just a matter of picking the wood and other ornaments up mate


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## robert69 (Jul 16, 2005)

Man, I added a shitload of decorations though. I can't imagine having to re-arrange the decoration 2 times/week when I do my water changes.....


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

What I have done is "Blow" the decorations off to get the detritus 'waterborn' so that it gets picked up in the filters.


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## robert69 (Jul 16, 2005)

But how do you get underneath the decorations???


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## Tyrone5797 (Aug 25, 2007)

Pick them up...

i know it sucks but its gotta be done


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

I try to keep decorations in my tank to a minimum for just this reason. The more crap in the tank the harder it is to clean.
I don't take anything out of my tank when I vac, usually I just move everything to one side, vac the cleared side, then move everything again and do the other half.


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## Demon Darko (Jan 28, 2007)

I put a small powerhead (Nano Hydor) in certain spots that would keep a small flow of water pushing pollutants toward the filter intakes.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Slytooth13 said:


> I put a small powerhead (Nano Hydor) in certain spots that would keep a small flow of water pushing pollutants toward the filter intakes.


I've tried that very thing, but could never quite get the powerheads to do what I expected.
They'd always just create little eddies in which the detritus would become trapped.

That's great that it's working for you... I've always thought it would be a great idea.


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## Demon Darko (Jan 28, 2007)

I found it really hard using powerheads until I got a Koralia. You can mount it anywhere and the head swivels.


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