vacuum or not to vacuum

[marco]

I've read conflicting posts on vacuuming up the stuff in my cc. Some say leave it alone and some say vacuum it up. the reason why I ask this is my nitrates are high and if vacuuming it up would bring them down, for I was not.

 

[karlas]

the cc i would vaccum because it traps detrius and produces more nitrates. vaccum it when you siphon out the water for your water changes and that should help.

 

[catera]

do it a section at a time. i did my whole cc and really caused my trites to spike to over 1.0 ppm so be careful i do know kelly ir jackson could give better advise.

 

[mr . salty]

Definatly Syphon it every time you do a water change.....

 

[kev]

I was also wandering if I should syphon my tank too. Everyone says how it traps waste, and causes buildups. But I have this Banded Goby that sifts through the CC all day long, and he really does a good job at it. Do I still need to syphon?

 

[kev]

I was also wandering if I should syphon my tank too. Everyone says how it traps waste, and causes buildups. But I have this Banded Goby that sifts through the CC all day long, and he really does a good job at it. Do I still need to syphon?

 

[kris]

I vacuum thouroughly at every water change--yep thats where the trates are along with the media in those filters--rinse those out every time (in tank water of course. My trates even with cc and two cainsters and yes even a ug (granted it's powered by 3 rio 3100's at 900gph each) ok and theres two bio-bak pak skimmers/bio-filter combo units too, but anyway my trates are never over 30 and usually run about 20 I actually only do water changes monthly.