Having no luck here at all ?

[Flyby Stardancer]

if you do it correctly then there should be no substrate leaving the tank. if you have plants its beneficial to leave some of the gunk in the gravel as a natural fert. my 55 just gets what gunk is on the surface sucked up and that it.

Okay, can you help me, then? When I use my vacuum as instructed on the video produced for my specific model, I suck up substrate and get the valve clogged with gravel. I can't get the balance between getting lighter gunk sucked up, or getting EVERYTHING sucked up.

[faolteam]

thanks fishmommie

can anyone tell me what gourami i have in my tank its in Gourami section but no relies yet

+ to this. what your friend was probably saying is that when you vac, you remove some of the beneficial bacteria from your substrate. And that's true, however, 90% of you BB lives in your filter and on your filter media, so when you vac the bottom the benefits of removing the waste far exceeds any loss of minimal BB in the substrate.
As genocidex said, if you have a planted tank then you will vac the surface lightly and let the waste act as fertilizer for your plants. if your tank is not planted or is lightly planted, then you want to get rid of as much waste as possible on a regular basis. again, vac half of the tank one week and half the other.

[genocidex]

the idea with gravel vacs is when the gravel comes half way up the chamber you pull the chamber out of the gravel and let all the gravel fall back into the tank. ill see if i can help in a moment on your gourami.

[faolteam]

Just a Matter of interest how long does it take for a tank 36x15x18 to drop 3 degrees,

my temp has gone down to 26c my heater has not gone on yet its set for about 25c

[Longshot]

that depends 0n the temp 0f the r00m that the tank is in. If the r00m has an a/c in it the temp will dr0p rather quickly. S0metimes the heaters aren't calibrated 100% accurately, what it l00ks like it is set f0r may be 0ff a few degrees t0 what it is actually set f0r. use a thermometer t0 check the water temp right when the heater kicks 0n.

[Longshot]

heres a link for ammonia toxicity with ph and temp.
http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/ammoniatox.html

just because some levels of ammonia arent "deadly" on the chart, prolonged ammonia exposure can cause gill damage and in turn kill fish, so no ammonia is safe

wh0a, c00l. acc0rding t0 this chart at 6.6 pH and 80 degrees I d0n't have anything t0 w0rry ab0ut, amm0nia wise, until 8ppm. N0t that I w0uld ever all0w it t0 g0 0ver .5 anyway with0ut a water change. My amm is dead 0n 0 ppm al0ng with nitrites- need a PWC this week th0ugh my trates just hit 10ppm.
Thanks f0r that inf0 Gen0cidex, I truly appreciate y0ur eff0rt in p0sting that f0r me.