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Vacuuming substrate a bad idea?


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So, I've seen some conflicting advice about this.

 

I mean is it really a bad thing to stir the substrate enough that mulm and other gunk gets floated back into the water? Will it affect the water chemistry a lot, especially in smaller tanks? Common sense would say yes.... although I figured maybe the mulm would settle back and any bad effects would be short lived. 

 

I used to occasionally stick a turkey baster right into the substrate to suck out some of the yuckiness. Then I saw some people say not to do that and to only vacuum the top layers. 

 

 

 

 

My first mistake was that my tank wasn't originally a shrimp tank. I had an African dwarf frog and a nerite snail originally. Obviously their bioload would be a lot more than shrimps.

 

I'm also not sure I'm a huge fan of the fluval shrimp stratum substrate. I don't know if controsoil or ADA is the same way. There was a lot of black dust at first and it's somewhat loose so it was a bit difficult to get plants to stay in. I also heard it breaks down faster.

 

Anyway, would love to see what you guys think. End of my rambling. 

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Short answer is not required.

 

I have one oldest tank for running more than three years.

 

You can see the shrimp wastes build up between the gap of substrate, just like super fine ADA powder, but my CRS breeding still like rabbits.

When I broke down the tank, I net out 500+ shrimps. 

 

Only routine clean up work is water change for 25% weekly. that's it.

 

So why bother?

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