Cleaning under decorations

[Sasquatch]

Well, as the title says, how do you clean under decorations?

I have a couple of "cave" decorations for the catfish and while putting the water back after a water change today I decided to shoot some water into the caves. Well, a whole lot of crap came out.

Probably explains why the catfish doesn't go in there anymore!

So, how to clean under there? Is the only way to lift if up and vaccum under it?

Thanks for any advice.

[Nautilus29]

I always lift my decorations and clean under them. But I dont have any heavy rocks in my tank so I dont have to worry about that. If there not rock formations then just lift them up and clean under them.

[jeffs99dime]

i lift all my rocks and bogwood and clean under them

[TehTANK]

I have a heavy rock formation and a large chunck of driftwood in my tank and I take everything out and clean the rocks and rinse everything. I have oscars so I have to do that. They are dirty fishies!

[Severus]

When ever i vacuum my gravel i just uproot all the decorations and plants. Then i just put them back in a different arrangement

[muffin]

I clean under my decorations at least once a month. I only have a few fish and they don't make too much of a mess so I don't feel that it's necessary to take everything out every time that I do a water change, which is twice a week. I do however make sure to take some time on a saturday, once a month to take everything out and scrub them down before putting them back in...

[Lady Hobbs]

Same here. I take everything out, put it on a towel on the floor and go to it once a week. Every two weeks would probably be OK, too.

[xoolooxunny]

the only thing i do to clean my tank is clean the glass and do water changes. i think the trumpet snails, clams and shrimp keep the substrate pretty clean....should i be cleaning under the rocks? is it bad that i dont??

[Severus]

the only thing i do to clean my tank is clean the glass and do water changes. i think the trumpet snails, clams and shrimp keep the substrate pretty clean....should i be cleaning under the rocks? is it bad that i dont??

You should really try and clean your gravel as well. The snails and shrimp will help, but they cant get it all. When you clean it you will be surprised at how much waste is in those rocks!

[Chrona]

Has anyone tried vacuuming Flourite yet? Whenever I disturb it, it sends up little plumes of Flourite, so I can only imagine what vacuuming is going to do to my tank. Does anyone just leave Flourite as it is with no vacuuming? (I may just suck at the surface a little)

[xoolooxunny]

Sorry Severus, but Chrona, i am one who has fluorite in a 75 gallon and i have yet to vacuum it, and for that reason you just mentioned. i bought like 25 asian clams to help keep it clean, and my substrate heater keeps a convection current through it all the time. the trumpet snails burrow in the fluorite to feed, and it seems to stay pretty clean. Im scared to vacuum it!!:22:

[Chrona]

kk, looks like I need to get some clams.

[xoolooxunny]

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

this is where i got mine, and as a matter of fact, a majority of my plants. the clams are at the bottom of that page, so you can read about them a little bit, and look them up elsewhere.

[Sasquatch]

the only thing i do to clean my tank is clean the glass and do water changes. i think the trumpet snails, clams and shrimp keep the substrate pretty clean....should i be cleaning under the rocks? is it bad that i dont??

I don't think you would need to clean under rocks and such since your fish aren't digging under them etc...

It's just that I have two caves for my catfish to hide in, they're hollowed out and laying on top of the gravel. So stuff builds up inside them and there isn't any current to take it back out again.

But they just resin decorations, so it won't be a problem to clean under them. I'll do that this weekend when we get back from :4: :19:

[Chrona]

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

this is where i got mine, and as a matter of fact, a majority of my plants. the clams are at the bottom of that page, so you can read about them a little bit, and look them up elsewhere.

Thanks!thumbs2:

[Severus]

Sorry Severus,

No need to apologize. I just think you will be amazed at what you can get out of your gravel when you really stir the rocks up

[xoolooxunny]

im going to try one section with my next filter change....my tree stump cave. i wonder what will come out????

[kimmers318]

I am leery of taking decor out all of the time and washing it because I believe some of your good bacteria does live on.....ever feel the slimey feel it has? I do make sure I nudge things around which causes the crap to float upward and when something gets really bad I will plunk it in with my bristlie who will take good care of cleaning it off for me. If it isn't algae on it then I will wash things, but only a few items at a time. Has anyone ever watched their water parameters for a few days to a week after removing and cleaning all of their decor at once? I would be curious to know if it causes any unbalancing in the system.

[Severus]

I wouldnt be surprised if it threw off your parameters a little bit. When you think about it, it probably has a lot more bacteria on it than you would expect.