# cleaning under your rock scape?



## mbunas4me (Mar 13, 2013)

i have over a hundred pounds of lace rocks in my malawi tank.my question is...should you remove the rocks completely maybe once or twice a year and vaccum clean underneath them,so you can vaccum clean the whole bottom of the tank.i vaccum the gravel around the rocks weekly while doing water changes,but,theres a lot of fish waste that gets under my rock scape over time.just wondering if anyone does this from time to time or of its not a big deal.let me know,thanks p.s. i have a gravel bed not sand.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I do this only if I have to remove the rocks for another reason, like netting fish.

Since your rocks are on the bottom and the substrate is on top, nothing should get underneath.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

I always take out my rocks once a month and do a full clean of the substrate. The old poop will end up under rocks espically because your fish will dig under them. Plus if you have to remove any fish that time is always the best time to do so. If you like how your tanks looks now take detailed photo's and match it back when putting the rocks back in. Also i would get rid of the gravel. The fish are from a sandy bottom lake not gravel. You will see more of your fishes natural doings with sand vrs. gravel. my 2 cents anyways


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## anthraxx4200 (Aug 16, 2012)

what i do with my lace rock (same amount as you if not more in a 125g) is remove it and brush it off with a crummy cheapo kitchen brush (bristles are much tougher then fish tank stuff) then ill just dunk it in a bucket a few times (really slosh it around to loosen any waste that may be trapped in the rock) and then stack it all out on a towel on my table. after all this i will clean and relevel all the substrate, rearrange the rocks and then im done. all in all around a 2 hour procedure (maybe less if i werent drinking a few brews during the whole process)


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

ratbones86 said:


> I always take out my rocks once a month and do a full clean of the substrate. The old poop will end up under rocks espically because your fish will dig under them.


Same here. I usually do a quick sand surface cleaning each week with the weekly PWC, but once or twice a month I will remove the rocks and clean under them. Even when the rocks are on the glass and no sand underneath them you still end up with waste trapped under them because the rocks are usually not perfectly flat so there will always been a little area that waste can get under.


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## ozman (Sep 7, 2012)

in my last tank i had sand (never had gravel so forgive me if im wrong) that i would clean weekly with 50% water change and pull the rocks every fortnight for a more thorough clean.

some of my large base rocks went back roughly the same but the rest i changed up mostly. it was great to watch them go about re-arranging the sand and who claimed where.
maybe that's not the done thing, however it worked well for me for 3 years.


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## Eric_S (Feb 27, 2007)

Turkey baster. No way I'm taking all my rocks out once a month :lol:. I have too many to be doing that. Just squirt the baster in all the crevices and the waste will end up in the filters or around the edges where it can be siphoned up.


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## mbunas4me (Mar 13, 2013)

thats a good idea eric.have to give that one a try.


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