Gravel cleaning question

[fish lover]

For the last few times, my fish tank gets cloudy right after water
change. It clears up in a day or two and my fish don't really like it
judging by the ways they act.

What did I do wrong? I use a gravel siphon to clean the bottom of the
tank and try only to pick up about 1/3 of the gravel surface at each
water change. I'm thinking maybe that too much gravel surface
disturbance because I chage water more often. How often/much is good
for bottom gravel clean?

I change about 30 to 40% of water in every 3 to 4 days since the
discus require better water condition.

[Daniel Morrow]

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Bottom posted.

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"fish lover" > wrote in message
...
> For the last few times, my fish tank gets cloudy right after water
> change. It clears up in a day or two and my fish don't really like
it
> judging by the ways they act.
>
> What did I do wrong? I use a gravel siphon to clean the bottom of
the
> tank and try only to pick up about 1/3 of the gravel surface at
each
> water change. I'm thinking maybe that too much gravel surface
> disturbance because I chage water more often. How often/much is
good
> for bottom gravel clean?
>
> I change about 30 to 40% of water in every 3 to 4 days since the
> discus require better water condition.

Do you use undergravel filtration any? If so then you ar right that
you shouldn't gravel vac too much. Other than that you should be able
to gravel vac to your hearts content minus the possibility you are
possibly changing too much water at any given interval (i.e. maybe
you should change smaller portions more often). Good luck and later!

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[fish lover]

I don't have a UGF. I have a Fluval 304 and a 404. Plus a power head
to help moving the water around. You maybe right, I may want to try
25% of water change instead of 30-40%. I was hoping more water change
can take out more waste but I geuss that's a bit too much. 2 times a
week is my upper limit already. I don't think I can do more often than
that without driving my wife crazy.

Thanks

[Fishman]

If you're using an alternate source for your biological/mechanical
filtration such as the Fluval canister filters, you could vacuum the gravel
fully without compromising your nitrogen cycle.

If you're only doing 1/3 every time, you may not be vacuuming enough
considering your fluval filtration remains undisturbed at these times.
30-40% is large and smaller, more frequent changes are more benefitial.

Alternate: Use live plants! If this is the same take that you refer to in
your other posts, you already have plants in there. Consider what other
elements are needed to improve thier growth and/or reduce the amount of
deterus that gets down into the gravel.

Fishman


"fish lover" > wrote in message
...
> I don't have a UGF. I have a Fluval 304 and a 404. Plus a power head
> to help moving the water around. You maybe right, I may want to try
> 25% of water change instead of 30-40%. I was hoping more water change
> can take out more waste but I geuss that's a bit too much. 2 times a
> week is my upper limit already. I don't think I can do more often than
> that without driving my wife crazy.
>
> Thanks