# how often do you rearrange your tank?(to clean)



## jeremy1 (Sep 1, 2009)

Well let me start off by saying the substrate i have is the eco-cmplete african substrate mix.It has shells/pieces bits of aragonite ect.When i do my wc i vac as much of it as i can get to.The way i have my lacerock stacked i just cant get underneath to vaccuum the gravel.I guess the question part is this i know there is waste under the rock formations so how often should i pull all of the rock out to vaccuum what i normally cant get to?Does rearranging cause any problems?Correct me if im wrong but fish waste in the gravel turns to nitrates right?So getting as much as possible out is good :-? .thanks for any feedback on this subject!!!!


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## Drix (Nov 10, 2009)

I try move my stuff around every 3 months or so. I have a few pieces that i leave in place. 8)


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

> The way i have my lacerock stacked i just cant get underneath to vaccuum the gravel.


Turkey baster :thumb:

Squirt it out of the holes, and either let your filter take care of it, or vacuum. If you're good, you can squirt it out with one hand, and catch it with the vac using the other hand.


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

I have 3 large rock pieces in my tank and I just move them seperately and vac my sand and it works out for me. I just have to make sure that none of my fish are in there though lol. Sure it takes a little more time but I do it and make an effort once a week so it's not a big deal. :thumb:


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

I also use a turkey baster but I will still rearrange the decor every so often because some of the larger rock piles eventually do accumulate a lot of junk in them. I don't worry that not doing this would create a water quality issue so rearranging things is just for aesthetic purposes for me.

Another note, I went out and bought a turkey baster specifically for the fish tanks. Using one from the kitchen would probably upset anyone you may live with.


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## vealboy (Jul 27, 2009)

About every other wc i move the decor for cleaning under the rocks and driftwood. I try not to move the plants at all, that is unless they have become uprooted.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

First you put your rocks on the bottom so there is no substrate underneath. Then you blast out between the rocks with a turkey baster.

Every time you have to net a fish (holding mom you want to collect fry from, someone is sick) you have to basically remove all/most of the rocks so do a thorough cleaning then. For me that's maybe once a year.


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

I agree, wait till you have a reason to move everything (sick, holding, etc) and do it then. Turkey baster works okay but a power head works better if you have one. Just let the power head spray in the nooks and crannies. If you do not have a power head, a garden hose with a sprayer nozzle works almost as well just a little more clunky.


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## apeterson0216 (Nov 14, 2009)

I never completly rearrange everything... I move a couple pieces each time... and its abut every 3 months or so.... my guys seem to enjoy the change!


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

i completely re-arrange everything often...probrably once a month. you dont need to actually re-arrange anything though. just make sure your biggest base rocks are firmly seated on the tank floor buried into the sand. vacuum quickly once...then mix up the sand. this will bring anything that may be buried to the surface and into the water column and it will settle on top of the sand where you can again vacuum it up


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## iCichlid (Sep 21, 2009)

I use my Hydor Koralia Water Circulation Pump to sweep everything over to the filter skimmers. Everytime i touch the rocks, i never get them back to where they were!


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## msleber (Nov 12, 2009)

I did a lot of research on the site about ten years ago and set up my first under gravel jet system then. Since that tank, I have put one in every set up I have put together and I clean the cichlid mix substrate maybe once a year. There's not much to pickup even then. The jets keep everything moving nicely toward the intake of my filtration system. Makes life a lot easier and the fish seem to like the movement.


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## Samson (Nov 22, 2009)

Every other water change i lift up the rockwork and sift through the sand with my fingers. It is not such a big job to do but i've been thinking ugj:s for some time now.


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

Depending on which tank, I sometimes move half the tank and clean one week and the other end the next. But more often than not I move everything to one side, vac and do the same for the other side. I can get almost everything back to the way it was.

Come to think of it...my 4' tanks get a complete clean almost every weekly WC and the 3' community tank doesn't get it's rock work moved much...and it's got the least amount of rock... :lol: ...more room to shuffle thing around in the 4' tanks I guess...


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I'm of the sort which likes to keep this hobby from becoming work. With that in mind, I do what needs to be and watch carefully. I find no need to move rocks to clean under them. I do test and record often. If the tanks are set up and working well, there are no issues with overstocking, or other things that make the water quality dip. If a fish died and got lost in a corner, I would have to move rocks. If there is grung under rocks that I cannot see or get to with the vac and it does not cause water quality questions, why bother? Do your fish have a preference for clean or are we just applying human thinking to them? My fish told me nobody ever vaccumed in the lake. :lol:


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

no no-one vacuums the lake but they are not living in a lake right. they are confined to a very small place and its up to you to keep it clean. if it were the lake there would be millions of gallons to dilute and spread around the waste but its not...


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Agree fully with the lake being diluted. Where I stand is that IF the water is kept clean (testing) the part we see is only an affront to us and not the fish. They would expect to see some grung floating around under the rocks. I don't stive to make my tanks all that natural as I recognised a long time ago that just was not going to happen. That is where I have given myself permission to stray from the norm when I find it suits me. Less work for me, I like it. Less tearing through the tank, the fish like it. Everybody much more happy. :lol:


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## lil_flame33 (Mar 20, 2010)

I was thinking the same thing.......

but I still think I like to make sure I vaccum it all... so....

I make hubby take all the rocks out.... :lol:

He always moves them around after I put them back anyway.... so i sit back and watch.... opcorn: 
Our tank is pretty new though... so we're still worried about it going all out of wack....

but how often should we be cleaning the canister filter?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

As soon as the water output starts to decline. Should be able to check once/month and see how it is doing.


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## afr..cichlids (Feb 16, 2010)

I have to agree with PfunMo, it is not necessary, but sometimes it is to move rocks around from time to time, for esthetics, sick or dead fish, that is the best time to vac areas that have been covered by the rocks. So long as a water change is done on a monthly basis, and the substrate that is accessible by vac is done and replaced with fresh new water, then the fish are happy..


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## bosco0633 (Dec 31, 2009)

+1 for the hydor. I just used that for the first time the other day to blow off the rocks in my tank. It made a bloody mess but i added some filter floss to my filters to pick up the extra. I have over 300lbs. of rock in my tank, so for me, I dont want to move it ever if I dont have to. I may get sick of the set up one day and want the change but for now it looks great and I dont want to screw that up.

Plus it would take forever, as I spent 3 hours setting them up when I started. I am also in this hobby for relaxation and dont want a ton of extra work. Honestly, I can really only see myself re arrange the rock work if something caves in. I like the turkey baster idea as well though, I may have to give that a try.


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## CichMomma (Mar 3, 2010)

PfunMo said:


> My fish told me nobody ever vaccumed in the lake. :lol:


That's odd. None of my fish ever talked to me


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

I vacum about 2/3 of my sand, the rest I can't get to and I do nothing about this.

Well thats not all tru as I use a snail colony that lives in the gravel and eats the waste from the bacteria culture, they live/work in a symbiosis. The snal dig up the gravel looking for food, it's letting oxygen into the substrate so the bacteria can live there. I hardly ever see them on the glass, they don't eat plants and mainly surface from the substrate after lights out.

I hardly ever make changes to the rocks when I finaly find the way I want the tank, they are placed on the bottom. I do what i can with water movement. So the poop collects where I can vacum it out or the filters take it.


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## HDrydr (Mar 22, 2010)

I change up my tank every time I do a water change I find that it keeps some of the aggression down my guys like certain spots so changing them up helps....


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