# junk at the bottom



## andiruleu (Jun 10, 2005)

is it bad if i leave tiny bits of left overs from the goldfish and 4 pellets and some goldfish flakes on the bottom of my tank for like a week or so? will that do any damage to my water? btw there's like a piece of goldfish head that my rhom took off..


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## GlassblowRBPown (Apr 4, 2005)

i would clean up as much as ou can that you fish leave behind. that food can cause an amonia spike in your water if you leave it too long. this is why plecos can be good. they eat leftovers and poop everywhere


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## Piranha King (Nov 28, 2002)

gravel vac it, it needs to come out.
wes


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## Uncle Rico (Sep 4, 2005)

yeah don't add a pleco if you have a planted tank. I recently found this out the hard way, and fired him. I'm going to buy a gravel vac to replace him.


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

andiruleu said:


> is it bad if i leave tiny bits of left overs from the goldfish and 4 pellets and some goldfish flakes on the bottom of my tank for like a week or so? will that do any damage to my water? btw there's like a piece of goldfish head that my rhom took off..
> [snapback]1181320[/snapback]​


You should try and to 2 water changes a week and gravel vac at the same time.

Leaving leftovers in there to rot for a week can sometimes spell bad news.


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## GlassblowRBPown (Apr 4, 2005)

my pleco never eats my plants, i feed him!


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## andiruleu (Jun 10, 2005)

where do i get a gravel vac? i looked at petsmart for one and its 80 bucks!


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

andiruleu said:


> where do i get a gravel vac? i looked at petsmart for one and its 80 bucks!
> [snapback]1184228[/snapback]​


You can get a standard gravel vac at Wal Mart for like $8. Its a long platic hard tube with a smaller hose coming off it to drain into a bucket. Or you can use a python that hooks up to your sink.

Gravel Vac

Python


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## AMAZON DON (Sep 2, 2005)

80 bucs that s outragious does it give the fish a blow job too


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## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

LOL


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

any sort of food causes your amonnia and nitrite to go up. Too much can fowl your water and causes many other chain reactions.


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## adultswim (Oct 21, 2004)

What are you retaaded? Clean that sh*t up.


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

adultswim said:


> What are you retaaded? Clean that sh*t up.
> [snapback]1199925[/snapback]​


Uncalled for. If you cannot respond to members in a positive manner, please do not respond at all.


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

doctorvtec said:


> adultswim said:
> 
> 
> > What are you retaaded? Clean that sh*t up.
> ...


No worries: based on this and other recent posts he's off for a week: time to rethink his strategy...

Anyways, back on topic: food leftovers should be cleaned asap: keeping a few small pieces in over night is ok if your tank is stable, fully cycled, and with enough filtration capacity, but it's best to remove it after 1-2 hours at most.
Poop will work as an ammonia source for a while until it's depleted (no idea how quickly that process goes, though), so it's not absolutely necessary to gravel vac that stuff all the time in a stable, cycled tank with enough filtration capacity: but imo. it looks terrible when a fish raises a sh*t storm as soon as he moves, so personally, I gravel vac my tanks at least twice a week.


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