Gravel Vac

[smokaah]

I am just starting to notice that shrimp produce a fair amount of waste. I was curious of any of you vacuum your substrate in your planted shrimp tanks?

Thanks

[Fdsh5]

I vacuum mine about once a month but only where I feed them. I don't bother the gravel anywhere else.

[Kunsthure]

Most people say don't vac. You can accidentally vac up shrimp (I use an old school syphon vac right into a bucket so I can pick up anyone that took a magic ride on my water slide. You can also stir up all the mess and create ammonia spikes which could kill the shrimp. It drives me nuts not to vacuum my Flourite since it's so similar to gravel. I rarely vacuum my 37g, never vac my 75g because you can't vac Turface and my 20g never gets messy enough to vac. It's only the 13g that bugs me.

-Lisa

[somewhatshocked]

It's not about potentially sucking up a shrimp, it's about potentially losing beneficial bacteria/bio-film/feeding ground, causing dirt and clay-based substrates to break down more quickly and potentially disturbing pockets of stuff you don't want in the tank that could harm your shrimp (rare).

[Kunsthure]

Originally Posted by somewhatshocked

It's not about potentially sucking up a shrimp, it's about potentially losing beneficial bacteria/bio-film/feeding ground, causing dirt and clay-based substrates to break down more quickly and potentially disturbing pockets of stuff you don't want in the tank that could harm your shrimp (rare).

Some people don't do it because they're afraid of sucking up shrimp.

-Lisa

[somewhatshocked]

HAHA! Myself included.

I have unsightly black pantyhose strapped to every single piece of hose that ever goes into any of my shrimp tanks. So much that it slows water changes down a bit.

Originally Posted by Kunsthure

Some people don't do it because they're afraid of sucking up shrimp.

-Lisa

[Kunsthure]

I have a DIY Python and it has pantyhose over the end. Stupid fish get too curious. I've had to rescue for than a few.

But I think I'm going to vacuum the hell out of my 13g's Flourite a week or so before I get my shrimp. Mystery snails are poop machines and I can't stand it. (Have I made it clear yet that I hate mulm?)

-Lisa

[In2wishin]

Originally Posted by somewhatshocked

HAHA! Myself included.

I have unsightly black pantyhose strapped to every single piece of hose that ever goes into any of my shrimp tanks. So much that it slows water changes down a bit.

I use a piece of fine nylon netting (bridal veiling from the fabric store). It is fine enough to keep even the smallest shrimplets out but lets the water flow better than hose does. I have the same netting over my filter intake in my shrimp tank.

[Kunsthure]

Originally Posted by In2wishin

I use a piece of fine nylon netting (bridal veiling from the fabric store). It is fine enough to keep even the smallest shrimplets out but lets the water flow better than hose does. I have the same netting over my filter intake in my shrimp tank.

Does it actually suck up dirt or is it just to keep shrimp out?

-Lisa

[In2wishin]

Originally Posted by Kunsthure

Does it actually suck up dirt or is it just to keep shrimp out?

-Lisa

It is mostly to keep shrimp out but it will suck up the finest particles of uneaten food, etc. off the surface of the substrate. I prefer to not disturb the substrate itself.

[babydragons]

Originally Posted by Kunsthure

I have a DIY Python and it has pantyhose over the end. Stupid fish get too curious. I've had to rescue for than a few.

But I think I'm going to vacuum the hell out of my 13g's Flourite a week or so before I get my shrimp. Mystery snails are poop machines and I can't stand it. (Have I made it clear yet that I hate mulm?)

-Lisa

Be very careful doing this. A week or so before I got my shrimp I was testing my new test kit to make sure all of my parameters would be safe and i had a less than .25 spike of ammonia. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and I got alot of slack from someone about my tank not being cycled properly. Thing was the tank had be set up for a year and a halk with fish. I wanted to get it as clean as possible. So i did a pretty big cleaning. Didn't lose any shrimp but definitely was a lesson