gravel vacuuming

[eben]

I just spent a bit of time using a gravel vac on my tank and was wondering how those huge tanks are maintained. Are they not cleaned at all?

Anyway my thinking lead me to believe there has to be an easier way to clean the gravel. I was wondering if there are any of you who has given any thought to this. My current thinking is along the way of leveraging water turbulence and spray jets under the gravel to force the muck towards the filter in take.

Can anybody give me a reason for why this is bad and should not be done? If I can build a system like this and avoid "dead spots" in the tank surely this will automate the "gravel vacuum" process?

I know the kiwi's are known for the ingenuity. Show your colours!!

[Casper]

under gravel filters?

would they mean you dont have to gravel vac?

dont have one but just curious :roll:

[eben]

Actually with a UGF the muck gets stuck underneath it and you still have to vacuum it out.

[Chazza404]

heres a DIY guide for UG jets :lol: :lol:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php

[Adrienne]

I have external filters with the spray bar at the back, intake at the front and a biggish powerhead at the end on the side blowing any surplus muck down towards the intake.

[eben]

Thanks Chazza

I do how ever have a few questions about this setup. Where would the filter intake be? Does it matter or is it just important to keep the water flowing at the bottom? Will the muck eventually move towards the filter intake?

Would it be possible to use something like an FX5 for this with a split in the outlets to direct some of the water to the UGJ's?

This looks like an awesome way of running a tank, I can imagine how simple it would be to maintain a tank with these and the FX5 with its "drain" function. you'd be able to do a tank clean in 10 minutes with no hassles at all.

[smidey]

i very rarely gravel vac at all. i used to be really paramoid bout it when new to fish keeping but only do it once every 8 weeks or so just to keep up appearance

[eben]

smidey, I do something similar but that is because I'm lazy. With UGJ's the tank will actually always look nice, provided I can actually solve my algae problem too.

[sub.z]

I do it about every 8 weeks aswell

[HummingBird]

I do mine every week, I do skip some spots that are heavily planted though. I figure that fish poo continues to leech nitrates for a while when it's in the gravel, it's not all dissolved right away. For bigger fish's poo I think this is true, anyways.

[alanmin4304]

I only vacuum the crud on top of the media whenever I do a water change. Otherwise it stays there as cheap plant food

[me love fishy]

I gravel vac everytime I do a waterchange which is usually once a fortnight, or if I notice the tank is starting to look a bit dirty.

[Caryl]

I gravel vac when I do a waterchage too - every 3 months or so.