Should I vacuum?

[CAT]

I have a FOwLR with crushed coral substrate. I vac as well and with the amount of dirt I suck out, I'm reluctant to stop. Also, it's nice to see white substrate when I'm done. The vacuuming shouldn't disturb your bio-filter and if you have crushed coral it should help to stop the substrate from compacting so that more oxygen can get in. I'm with Joez - about a third of the substrate at a time.

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CAT

[Tammster]

I have a 40 gal FOWLR Eclipse tank with about 30 lbs of LR that has been set up since Dec 99. I did not use LS but the rock has been in there for about 4 months.

When I change 5% of my water weekly, I usually vacuum out the bottom. The water that comes out is very dirty looking & I thought I was doing a good thing all this time. However, I was told that I shouldn't be vacuuming the substrate at all; that it will pull out beneficial bacteria.

Is this another of those controversial topics? If I don't vacuum, it seems like the bottom will get horribly dirty.

[Joez]

If you have a "live" substrate, then you would be pulling out some beneficial lifeforms.

But in some systems you just have to do it. My FOWLR houses some real pigs, and I need to suck up some stuff from the bottom when I clean. I just go as lightly as possible, and "vaccuum" only about a third of the bottom at a time.

Some people go bare-bottomed for this reason. I don't have any gripe with them for doing it that way; just another tactic.